CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 435 km round trip from Warsaw - roughly 7 h 03 in the saddle. On the way it passes Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin, Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field, Borownia Mining Field and Korycizna Mining Field. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Warsaw is a city that was erased and then rebuilt, and the second part is what makes it extraordinary. In August 1944 the Polish Home Army rose against the German occupiers, and after two months of fighting the Germans, on Hitler's orders, systematically destroyed most of the city, leaving it a field of rubble. The Old Town was reconstructed after the war, brick by brick, using old paintings, notably those of the eighteenth-century artist Bernardo Bellotto, and documents saved by the city's architects. UNESCO listed the result in 1980 as a remarkable act of cultural will.
Read the complete Warsaw write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Warsaw is where the day begins. Next is Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin.
Five thousand years ago, people in these low wooded hills in the Świętokrzyskie region were digging down into the ground for a stone that looked like nothing else. Striped flint, with its bands of grey, brown and cream, is a rarity, and it was prized for making polished axes that were traded across a large part of central Europe. The mines at Krzemionki, along with sites at Borownia, Korycizna and Wierzbica, make up one of the most extensive prehistoric mining landscapes known, and UNESCO listed the group in 2019.
Read the complete Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin comes up about 198 km into the recorded legs. Next is Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field.
This is the place where you can actually go down. The Krzemionki Opatowskie mining field has an underground tourist route of about half a kilometre, through a network of old galleries, chambers and narrow passages cut by Neolithic miners and then protected for visitors. The temperature below the ground stays cool all year, so bring a sweater even in August, and the air has the damp, mineral smell of old stone. A guide leads you through, with a light that picks out the striped flint in the walls, and the pits where miners once worked by the light of fires.
Read the complete Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 199 km into the recorded legs you reach Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field. Next is Borownia Mining Field.
Borownia is the quiet cousin among the flint mining fields, and that is part of its charm. Where Krzemionki has a visitor centre and a guided underground route, Borownia is a forested landscape of low hills, in which the traces of Neolithic mining appear as a scatter of shallow hollows on the forest floor. It is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of 2019, and its value lies in showing how widely the mining spread across the district, rather than in a single dramatic display.
Read the complete Borownia Mining Field write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Borownia Mining Field, about halfway. Next is Korycizna Mining Field.
Korycizna Mining Field sits at 208 km, about halfway. Next is back through Borownia Mining Field.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Borownia Mining Field write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Borownia Mining Field comes up about 225 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 239 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field. Next is back through Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin, late in the day. Next is Warsaw.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Warsaw write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 435 km.
Warsaw → Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin is 198 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field → Borownia Mining Field is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Borownia Mining Field → Korycizna Mining Field is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Korycizna Mining Field → back through Borownia Mining Field is 8 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Borownia Mining Field → back through Krzemionki Opatowskie Mining Field is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Minin → Warsaw is 198 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.