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 Szendrő it runs 407 km to Szendrő; allow about 7 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Component of Plešivec plateau, Dobšinská Ice Cave, Kezmarok and Church of the Archangel Michael. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Hungary, Slovakia and 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.
Esztramos is a lumpy limestone hill rising from the valley of the Bódva in north-eastern Hungary, a stone's throw from the Slovak border. For much of the twentieth century it was quarried for limestone and iron ore, and in the process the miners broke into caves hidden inside it, full of crystal formations. The Rákóczi Cave, the best known of them, has delicate aragonite crystals and pools, and the hill now forms part of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, a World Heritage site shared between the two countries. Visits to the cave are limited and usually need to be booked, so check before you count on getting inside.
Read the complete Component of Esztramos Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component of Esztramos Hill is where the day begins. Next is Component of Plešivec plateau.
The Slovak Karst is a world of limestone plateaus and deep gorges in southern Slovakia, along the Hungarian border, and the Plešivec plateau is one of its great tablelands, a high, flat-topped block of rock rising steeply above the valleys of the Slaná and the Štítnik rivers. Its surface is a rolling steppe of grass and scrub, pitted with sinkholes, and beneath it lies a maze of caves and abysses, part of the UNESCO site of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst.
Read the complete Component of Plešivec plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component of Plešivec plateau comes up about 46 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 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.
Kezmarok, about halfway. 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 sits at 168 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Kezmarok comes up about 259 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 318 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Dobšinská Ice Cave. Next is back through Component of Plešivec plateau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component of Plešivec plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component of Plešivec plateau, late in the day. Next is Component of Esztramos Hill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component of Esztramos Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 407 km.
Component of Esztramos Hill → Component of Plešivec plateau is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Plešivec plateau → Dobšinská Ice Cave is 45 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 → back through Kezmarok is 55 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 → back through Component of Plešivec plateau is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Plešivec plateau → Component of Esztramos Hill is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.