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 Rožňava it runs 452 km to Rožňava; allow about 8 h 51 of riding. On the way it passes Dobšinská Ice Cave, Kezmarok, Church of the Archangel Michael and Church of St Leonard. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Slovakia into Poland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 59 km this is Slovak High Tatras Freedom Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Silica plateau is a high, flat limestone table in the Slovak Karst, a few kilometres north of the Hungarian border, and it forms part of the same cross-border UNESCO site as the Aggtelek caves. The label points to the country around Silica and Jasov, a landscape of dry meadows and beech woods broken by sinkholes, gorges and caves, with small villages tucked in the folds. Jasov, in the valley below, has a large Premonstratensian monastery, founded in the thirteenth century, with a grand Baroque church and a cave beneath the hill that is open to visitors. Nearby is the Ochtiná Aragonite Cave, one of very few caves in the world with spiky, branching aragonite crystals.
Read the complete Component neighbouring Silica and Jasov write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component neighbouring Silica and Jasov is where the day begins. 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.
Dobšinská Ice Cave comes up about 57 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 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Kezmarok. Next is Church of the Archangel Michael.
From the outside, the church in Dębno Podhalańskie looks like a sturdy wooden barn with a steep shingled roof and a squat tower, the kind of building you might ride past without a second glance. Step inside and the walls explode with colour: every surface covered in stencilled and painted patterns, animals, plants and geometric figures, dating back to around 1500, one of the best-preserved medieval painted interiors in Poland. The church, built of larch in the late fifteenth century, is part of the UNESCO listing of Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska, a group of Gothic timber churches that show the skill of local carpenters who built without nails.
Read the complete Church of the Archangel Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Archangel Michael, about halfway. Next is Church of St Leonard.
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 sits at 186 km, about halfway. Next is back through Church of the Archangel Michael.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Archangel Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of the Archangel Michael comes up about 282 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kezmarok.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kezmarok write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 336 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kezmarok. 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, late in the day. Next is Component neighbouring Silica and Jasov.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component neighbouring Silica and Jasov write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 452 km.
Component neighbouring Silica and Jasov → Dobšinská Ice Cave is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dobšinská Ice Cave → Kezmarok is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kežmarok → Church of the Archangel Michael is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Archangel Michael → Church of St Leonard is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of St Leonard → back through Church of the Archangel Michael is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of the Archangel Michael → back through Kezmarok is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kezmarok → back through Dobšinská Ice Cave is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dobšinská Ice Cave → Component neighbouring Silica and Jasov is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.