CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Zadar it runs 381 km to Zadar; allow about 7 h 23 of riding. The stops in between: Paklenica National Park, Fort of St. Nikola, The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik and back through The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 4 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Alfred Hitchcock is supposed to have said that Zadar has the most beautiful sunset in the world, and the people of the town have taken him at his word. The city sits on a narrow peninsula on the Dalmatian coast, with the sea on three sides and the island of Ugljan across the channel, and the sun drops into the water in a long fire of orange and pink. The best place to watch is the waterfront promenade at the end of the old town, where a pair of modern works of art, the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun, turn the shoreline into an instrument and a light show.
Read the complete Zadar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zadar is where the day begins. Next is Paklenica National Park.
Paklenica is a place where the Velebit mountains drop in a wall to the Adriatic. The national park, created in 1949, protects two gorges, Mala and Velika Paklenica, which cut into the limestone like a pair of knife wounds, with vertical walls up to four hundred metres high. The big wall of Anića Kuk is a famous climbing area, and on a clear day you can watch climbers as small as ants. Between the walls, the path winds through black pine and beech forest, with the sound of a stream and the smell of resin. Griffon vultures nest on the cliffs and often circle overhead, and the caves in the hills hold bats and old stories.
Read the complete Paklenica National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paklenica National Park comes up 37 km in. Next is Fort of St. Nikola, 37 km on.
Šibenik has the odd distinction of being a Croatian city founded by Croats rather than by the Greeks or Romans who established most of the Adriatic coast, and its old town climbs a hillside above a natural harbour, a maze of stone lanes and stairs. The harbour is approached through a narrow channel from the sea, and the fort of St Nicholas guards the entrance, standing on a small rocky islet. The Venetians built it in the 1540s to protect the city from Ottoman galleys, and it is a remarkable piece of military design, with a triangular plan and walls shaped to deflect cannon fire. UNESCO has listed it among the Venetian Works of Defence of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, together with the defences of Zadar. The fort is reached by boat from the Šibenik waterfront.
Read the complete Fort of St. Nikola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least 106 km in you reach Fort of St. Nikola. Next is The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik.
Croatian cathedrals are usually built of brick and timber, so the first odd thing about St James in Šibenik is that it is made entirely of stone, vaulted and roofed in carefully shaped slabs that lock together without a scrap of wood or mortar in the structure. It took more than a century to finish, from the 1430s into the 1530s, and the work passed through the hands of Juraj Dalmatinac and later Niccolò Fiorentino, which is why Gothic and Renaissance ideas sit in the same building. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list in 2000.
Read the complete The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik, about halfway. Next is The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik comes up 184 km in. Next is back through Fort of St. Nikola, 37 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort of St. Nikola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
221 km in you reach back through Fort of St. Nikola. Next is back through Paklenica National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paklenica National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paklenica National Park, late in the day. Next is Zadar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zadar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 381 km.
Zadar → Paklenica National Park is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paklenica National Park → Fort of St. Nikola is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Fort of St. Nikola → The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik → back through Fort of St. Nikola is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort of St. Nikola → back through Paklenica National Park is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Paklenica National Park → Zadar is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.