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 315 km to Stolac; allow about 7 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of Old City of Dubrovnik, Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K and back through Old City of Dubrovnik. It crosses Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 Old City of Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik is the place where the Dalmatian coast reaches its theatrical climax: a walled city of pale limestone thrust out into a sea that refuses to be any colour but deep blue. The walls run for nearly two kilometres around the old town, with towers, bastions and the great Minčeta fortress on the landward side, and inside them the marble-paved Stradun runs straight from the Pile Gate to the old port. For centuries this was the Republic of Ragusa, a small, astute maritime state that survived between Venice and the Ottoman Empire through trade, diplomacy and a famously effective tribute system, until Napoleon ended its independence in the early nineteenth century.
Read the complete Old City of Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Dubrovnik comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K.
The Bay of Kotor is a drowned river canyon on the Montenegrin coast, a set of linked basins pushed deep into the limestone mountains, and here at its inner reaches, around Risan and Perast, it feels more like a Norwegian fjord than the Adriatic. The mountains drop almost straight into the water, the villages cling to a thin strip of shore, and the light changes the colour of the sea from green to steel to deep blue as the day goes on. The whole region is on the UNESCO list for its natural beauty and the cultural layering of its little towns.
Read the complete Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 156 km into the recorded legs you reach Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K. Next is back through Old City of Dubrovnik.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old City of Dubrovnik, 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.
Back at Boljuni. That is the ride.
Boljuni → Old City of Dubrovnik is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old City of Dubrovnik → Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K → back through Old City of Dubrovnik is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Old City of Dubrovnik → Boljuni is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.