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 Karlovo it runs 373 km to Karlovo; allow about 10 h 05 of riding. On the way it passes Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve, Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak and back through Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 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 114 km this is Bulgaria Shipka Pass Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Steneto is a deep, wild valley on the northern slopes of the Balkan range in central Bulgaria, enclosed by cliffs and covered in ancient beech forest, and it is one of the strict reserves of Central Balkan National Park, part of the Primeval Beech Forests World Heritage listing. Access is restricted, and nature is left to itself: old trees fall and rot, and the forest is home to bears, wolves, wild boar and a rich variety of birds, including several species of woodpecker and owl. The Cherni Osam river flows through the valley, and its clear waters are home to trout.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Steneto Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central Balkan - Steneto Reserve is where the day begins. Next is Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve.
Bulgaria's Balkan range gave the whole peninsula its name, and the central stretch is where it looks most like a proper mountain wall. The Severen Dzhendem reserve lies in the Central Balkan National Park, the high ridge that runs east to west above the Rose Valley. To the south the land drops towards Kalofer and Karlovo, and to the north it falls away into the foothills and the towns around Apriltsi and Troyan. The tallest peak in the range, Botev, rises to a little over 2,300 metres not far from here, and the high ground is grassy ridge, cliff and old beech and fir forest.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak.
In 1944 soldiers digging a shelter on the edge of Kazanlak broke into a small brick chamber and found themselves looking at some of the finest ancient paintings in the Balkans. The Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, built in the fourth century BC for a ruler of the Thracians, has a narrow corridor leading to a round, beehive-shaped burial chamber, its dome covered with frescoes of a funeral feast: the dead man and his wife seated at a table, servants bringing gifts, horses and chariots racing around the top. The colours and the tenderness of the figures are extraordinary. It was listed by UNESCO in 1979.
Read the complete Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 186 km into the recorded legs you reach Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak. Next is back through Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve, late in the day. Next is Central Balkan - Steneto Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central Balkan - Steneto Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Central Balkan - Steneto Reserve. That is the ride.
Central Balkan - Steneto Reserve → Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve → Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak is 114 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak → back through Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve is 115 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Central Balkan - Severen Dzhendem Reserve → Central Balkan - Steneto Reserve is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.