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.
513 km from Kalofer to Kalofer, about 9 h 47 of riding. On the way it passes Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve, Boyana Church and back through Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Above the little town of Kalofer, the southern wall of the Balkan range rises almost vertically, cut by deep gorges with waterfalls and covered in old beech and fir forest, and up there lies the Dzhendema reserve, one of the strict nature reserves within Central Balkan National Park. The name is said to come from a Turkish word for hell, a fair description of its steep, wild terrain. Above the reserve, Botev Peak, the highest summit of the Balkan mountains at 2,376 metres, stands at the heart of the park. Bears, wolves, chamois and wild goats roam these slopes, and the old beech forests of the park are part of the transnational World Heritage site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of Europe.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Dzhendema Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central Balkan - Dzhendema Reserve is where the day begins. Next is Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve.
The Balkan range, called Stara Planina in Bulgarian, runs across the whole of the country like a long, wooded wall, and it gave its name to the entire Balkan peninsula. The Tsarichina reserve lies in its central part, within the Central Balkan National Park, in a deep valley that holds some of the oldest and best preserved forests in Bulgaria. The beech and fir trees are huge, and in places have never been cut, so the forest has the tall, silent, shadowy character of ancient woodland. It belongs to the beech forest sites that UNESCO linked together across Europe.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve comes up about 118 km into the recorded legs. Next is Boyana Church.
Boyana is a village on the southern edge of Sofia, tucked against the lower slopes of Mount Vitosha, and it holds a small church that changed the history of European painting, or at least its footnotes. The church is made of three parts built over several centuries, but the middle part, a tiny two-storey chapel, was decorated in 1259 for Sebastokrator Kaloyan, a local ruler, and his wife Desislava, who are painted in the narthex as donors. The frescoes show eighty-nine scenes with more than two hundred and forty human figures, and they are astonishing for their realism. The faces have individual expressions, the saints look like real people, and they predate the Italian Renaissance by generations.
Read the complete Boyana Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 257 km into the recorded legs you reach Boyana Church. Next is back through Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve, late in the day. Next is Central Balkan - Dzhendema Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Dzhendema Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Central Balkan - Dzhendema Reserve. That is the ride.
Central Balkan - Dzhendema Reserve → Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve is 118 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve → Boyana Church is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Boyana Church → back through Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Central Balkan - Tsarichina Reserve → Central Balkan - Dzhendema Reserve is 118 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.