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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Deçan it runs 261 km to Deçan; allow about 4 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Patriarchate of Peć Monastery, Lumi i gashit and back through Patriarchate of Peć Monastery. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Kosovo into Albania - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Visoki Dečani is a monastery that looks as if a Romanesque church from Italy had settled in the Balkan mountains. It lies in the valley of the Bistrica river, in western Kosovo, under the steep wall of the Prokletije or Accursed mountains, and its main church, built between 1327 and 1335 for the Serbian king Stefan Dečanski, is a large block of pink, grey and yellow marble, with carved portals, lions and a rose window, the work of a Franciscan master from the Adriatic coast. Inside it is a different world, with more than a thousand painted scenes covering every inch of wall and ceiling, one of the largest surviving cycles of Byzantine painting in the Balkans. It was listed by UNESCO in 2004, with other medieval monuments of Kosovo.
Read the complete Dečani Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dečani Monastery is where the day begins. Next is Patriarchate of Peć Monastery.
The Serbian Orthodox Church has had its seat at Pec since the thirteenth century, and the Patriarchate stands where the Rugova gorge opens onto the plain, with the walls of the mountains rising straight behind it. Three churches, joined by a shared porch, make up the complex, and inside them the walls are covered in frescoes that range from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The oldest, the Church of the Holy Apostles, was built under Archbishop Arsenije and has a serene, early painting style, while the later churches added by his successors show the growing wealth and ambition of the medieval Serbian state. UNESCO lists it together with Visoki Decani and other monasteries as the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo.
Read the complete Patriarchate of Peć Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Patriarchate of Peć Monastery comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lumi i gashit.
Here the borders of Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania meet in the Prokletije, the Accursed Mountains, a rugged range of limestone peaks that rises above two thousand metres and is among the wildest country in the Balkans. The label uses the Albanian name for a stream, Lumi i Gashit, the river of Gashi, and the nearest places on the Montenegrin side are Plav and Gusinje, where Albanians and Bosniaks make up a large share of the population. Plav sits on a glacial lake, a cold, clear body of water ringed by high peaks, with a small mosque, an old Ottoman tower house and a quiet lakeshore promenade.
Read the complete Lumi i gashit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 132 km into the recorded legs you reach Lumi i gashit. Next is back through Patriarchate of Peć Monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Patriarchate of Peć Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Patriarchate of Peć Monastery, late in the day. Next is Dečani Monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dečani Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Dečani Monastery. That is the ride.
Dečani Monastery → Patriarchate of Peć Monastery is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Patriarchate of Peć Monastery → Lumi i gashit is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lumi i gashit → back through Patriarchate of Peć Monastery is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Patriarchate of Peć Monastery → Dečani Monastery is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.