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.
From Stolac it runs 518 km to Stolac; allow about 11 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Bijača, Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar, Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup and Gvozno. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 48 km this is Bosnia Mostar to Sarajevo Mountain Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In the stony hills of eastern Herzegovina, a few kilometres from Stolac, a field of grey limestone blocks lies scattered among oak scrub and dry grass. These are stećci, medieval tombstones carved between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Boljuni has a few hundred of them, many decorated with reliefs: rosettes, crescents, spirals, hunters with spears, dancing figures holding hands, a man raising an oversized hand as if in greeting. Nobody fully agrees on who made them or what all the symbols mean, which makes standing among them oddly moving. Together with other cemeteries across Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours, Boljuni is part of the UNESCO site of Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, inscribed in 2016.
Read the complete Boljuni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boljuni is where the day begins. Next is Bijača.
In western Herzegovina, near the town of Ljubuški and close to the Croatian border, the land is a mix of karst hills, fertile valleys and vineyards, baked by the sun and scented with sage and fig. Near the village of Bijača, the necropolis of stećci, the medieval tombstones that are unique to this region, is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of stećci, spread across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The tombstones, carved with crosses, spirals, figures and inscriptions, stand among the grass and stones, a silent reminder of the people who lived here centuries ago.
Read the complete Bijača write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bijača comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar.
The Old Bridge in Mostar is a single stone arch, slender and impossibly high, leaping across the emerald-green Neretva between two fortified towers. The Ottomans built it in the 1560s, designed by an architect named Mimar Hayruddin, and for more than four centuries it stood as a symbol of the city. On 9 November 1993, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was shelled and collapsed into the river. It was rebuilt with the original techniques and stone recovered from the riverbed and reopened in 2004, and the following year UNESCO listed the Old Bridge Area as a symbol of reconciliation and cultural coexistence.
Read the complete Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 102 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar. Next is Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup.
The Greek hillock, Grčka glavica, is a misleading name: the medieval tombstones that crown it have nothing to do with Greece. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, folk tradition often credited the stećci, the great carved medieval tombstones of the region, to Greeks, giants or other mysterious ancestors, and the names have stuck. The necropolis near the village of Biskup, in the hills south of Konjic, is a group of these stones, some decorated with reliefs of crosses, rosettes, hunting scenes or figures, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of stećci medieval tombstone graveyards, listed in 2016.
Read the complete Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup, about halfway. Next is Gvozno.
Out on the high karst plateau around Kalinovik, south of Sarajevo, the land opens into wide pastures and rocky hills at well over a thousand metres, ringed by the mountains of Treskavica, Lelija and Zelengora. Here and there, half-hidden in the grass, lie stećci, the carved medieval tombstones that are unique to this corner of the Balkans. The necropolis at Gvozno is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of stećci, which spans Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Read the complete Gvozno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gvozno sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup comes up about 310 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 414 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar. Next is back through Bijača.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bijača write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bijača, late in the day. Next is Boljuni.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boljuni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 518 km.
Boljuni → Bijača is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bijača → Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar → Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup is 101 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup → Gvozno is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gvozno → back through Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup → back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar → back through Bijača is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bijača → Boljuni is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.