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.
269 km from Rožňava to Rožňava, about 4 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Component of Koniar plateau, Dobšinská Ice Cave, Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš and back through Dobšinská Ice Cave. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Hungary into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Under these low wooded hills runs one of the great caves of Europe. The Baradla, a limestone passage about twenty-five kilometres long, starts near Aggtelek in Hungary and crosses the border into Slovakia, where it is called the Domica, so the same cave is entered from two countries. Water has been cutting it for millions of years, and the result is a series of halls and galleries filled with stalactites, stalagmites and dripping curtains of stone, kept at a steady temperature of about ten degrees all year. Guided tours go in through the Aggtelek entrance, and in one big hall called the Concert Hall, musicians perform, because the acoustics are so good. UNESCO listed the caves of the Aggtelek and Slovak Karst in 1995, one of the first cross-border natural sites in Europe.
Read the complete Component including Aggtelek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component including Aggtelek is where the day begins. Next is Component of Koniar plateau.
The Koniar plateau is a slab of limestone lifted above the surrounding valleys in southern Slovakia, one of the high karst tablelands that together make up the Slovak Karst. From the road it looks like nothing much: open grassland, scattered trees, a few pastures, steep wooded edges falling to the valleys of the Slaná and its tributaries. The interest is underneath. Rain soaks straight through the limestone, carving caves, shafts and swallow holes, and the whole cave system of the Slovak Karst and Hungary's Aggtelek, just over the border, is protected as a single World Heritage site. Nearby you will find the Ochtinská aragonite cave, filled with white needle-like crystals, the Gombasecká cave with its thin straw stalactites and, further north, the Dobšinská ice cave.
Read the complete Component of Koniar plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component of Koniar plateau comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dobšinská Ice Cave.
Step out of a warm summer day into the Dobšinská Ice Cave and the temperature drops to just below freezing within a few metres. The cave, on the northern edge of the Slovak Paradise in eastern Slovakia, holds a vast mass of ice, tens of thousands of cubic metres, with frozen floors, walls and columns that have built up over thousands of years. It was explored in 1870 by Eugen Ruffinyi, opened to visitors soon after, and became one of the first caves in Europe to be lit by electricity. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, shared with Hungary.
Read the complete Dobšinská Ice Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 91 km into the recorded legs you reach Dobšinská Ice Cave. Next is Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš.
Master Paul of Levoča carved the tallest Gothic wooden altar in the world, and you can stand in front of it in the church of St James in the centre of this walled town in eastern Slovakia. Completed in the early sixteenth century, the altar rises almost nineteen metres, with life-size figures of the Virgin and saints in limewood, painted and gilded, under a forest of pinnacles. It is the masterpiece of a sculptor about whom little is known beyond his work, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of Levoča, Spiš Castle and the associated cultural monuments.
Read the complete Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš, about halfway. Next is back through Dobšinská Ice Cave.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dobšinská Ice Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dobšinská Ice Cave sits at 128 km, about halfway. Next is back through Component of Koniar plateau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component of Koniar plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component of Koniar plateau comes up about 227 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component including Aggtelek.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component including Aggtelek write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component including Aggtelek closes the day.
Component including Aggtelek → Component of Koniar plateau is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Koniar plateau → Dobšinská Ice Cave is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dobšinská Ice Cave → Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Levoča and the work of Master Paul in Spiš → back through Dobšinská Ice Cave is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dobšinská Ice Cave → back through Component of Koniar plateau is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Koniar plateau → Component including Aggtelek is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.