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.
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 471 km round trip from Žabljak - roughly 11 h 44 in the saddle. On the way it passes Grčko groblje, Durmitor National Park, Mramor in Vrbica and back through Durmitor National Park. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Montenegro into Bosnia & Herzegovina - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 49 km this is Montenegro Durmitor Ring, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Near Žabljak, on the high plateau below Durmitor, a group of medieval tombstones lies in a meadow at Bare Žugića. These are stećci, massive carved stones that mark graves from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, found across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Some are simple slabs, others shaped like houses or sarcophagi, decorated with carvings of spirals, crosses, vines, hunting scenes, dancers and figures with raised hands. Their makers belonged to various Christian communities of the medieval Balkans, and their meaning is still debated. In 2016 UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites, including Bare Žugića, as the Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards. Seeing these stones in a high meadow, surrounded by mountains, is quietly moving.
Read the complete Bare Žugića write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bare Žugića is where the day begins. Next is Grčko groblje.
Greek cemetery is what the name means, and you will find the same name attached to old graveyards across the mountains of Bosnia and Montenegro. For generations, local people attributed the mysterious carved tombstones of the medieval period to the Greeks, a vague term for ancient or foreign peoples, because nobody remembered who had made them. In fact, these stećci were carved by the medieval communities of the region between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and the groups that bear the name Grčko groblje are among the many sites included in the UNESCO listing.
Read the complete Grčko groblje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grčko groblje comes up 41 km in. Next is Durmitor National Park.
Durmitor is the kind of mountain range that makes you pull over every few minutes. In the north of Montenegro, a limestone massif rises above a high plateau around Žabljak, with jagged peaks, glacial lakes and deep canyons carved by the Tara, Piva and Sušica rivers. The national park was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1980, and it includes the Tara canyon, one of the deepest gorges in Europe. Glaciers shaped the range, leaving cirques and lakes scattered across the high ground, of which the Black Lake near Žabljak is the best known.
Read the complete Durmitor National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
83 km in you reach Durmitor National Park. Next is Mramor in Vrbica.
The Drina is a river that runs through every story in this part of the Balkans, and Foča sits on one of its finest stretches. The town, with about fourteen thousand people, lies where the Drina meets the Ćehotina, among steep green mountains, and the old Aladža mosque, a painted sixteenth-century building, was one of the most beautiful Ottoman monuments in the region before it was destroyed in the war of the 1990s and then rebuilt. Foča carries that history quietly, and it is a place where you should listen more than talk.
Read the complete Mramor in Vrbica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mramor in Vrbica, about halfway. Next is back through Durmitor National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Durmitor National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Durmitor National Park sits at 165 km, about halfway. Next is back through Grčko groblje.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grčko groblje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grčko groblje comes up 207 km in. Next is Bare Žugića.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bare Žugića write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bare Žugića closes the day.
Bare Žugića → Grčko groblje is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grčko groblje → Durmitor National Park is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durmitor National Park → Mramor in Vrbica is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mramor in Vrbica → back through Durmitor National Park is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Durmitor National Park → back through Grčko groblje is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grčko groblje → Bare Žugića is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.