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.
A 259 km round trip from Limanowa - roughly 4 h 45 in the saddle. It goes by way of Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less, Kezmarok and back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Poland into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
The hills around Limanowa in southern Poland have a nickname that suits them perfectly: the Beskid Wyspowy, the Island Beskids. Instead of forming a continuous ridge, the summits rise individually from the surrounding valleys like islands from a sea, each one wooded, rounded and separate. Driving through the area is a constant game of spotting the next hump on the horizon. The famous wooden church of St Leonard stands at Lipnica Murowana, in the hills to the north of here, and it is one of the Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland listed by UNESCO in 2003.
Read the complete Church of St Leonard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of St Leonard is where the day begins. Next is Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less.
Hidden among the hills of the Beskid Sądecki, close to the Slovak border in southern Poland, the little wooden church at Powroźnik is one of the oldest of its kind still standing in the country. Its oldest parts date from around 1600, and it belongs to the group of wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region listed by UNESCO in 2013. A tserkva is an Eastern-rite church, and this one was built by the Lemkos, the Rusyn highlanders who farmed these valleys for centuries until most were forcibly resettled after the Second World War. Today it serves as a Catholic church, but the shape tells its origin story at once: a tower with a bulging onion-like cap, stepped shingle roofs and dark timber walls weathered almost black.
Read the complete Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kezmarok.
Kežmarok sits at the foot of the High Tatras in northern Slovakia, and on a clear day the jagged peaks of the smallest high mountain range in Europe rise above the town like a wall. It is an old town with a mixed history: founded by German settlers in the Middle Ages, it was a free royal town and a centre of trade and crafts, and its wealthy citizens built a castle, churches and fine houses around the square.
Read the complete Kezmarok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 129 km into the recorded legs you reach Kezmarok. Next is back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less, late in the day. Next is Church of St Leonard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of St Leonard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of St Leonard. That is the ride.
Church of St Leonard → Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → Kezmarok is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kežmarok → back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Powroźnik-Tserkva of Saint James the Less → Church of St Leonard is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.