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 Zadar it runs 634 km to Zadar; allow about 13 h 24 of riding. On the way it passes Paklenica National Park, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Hajdučki i Rožanski kukovi and back through Plitvice Lakes National Park. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
This part of the ride is 153 km of Paklenica National Park → Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Zadar spent much of its life on the front line, and its walls prove it. Once the chief city of Venetian Dalmatia, it stood on the border between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Venetians turned it into one of the strongest fortress towns in the Adriatic. The ramparts, bastions and gates that survive are part of the Venetian Works of Defence between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a group of sites across Italy, Croatia and Montenegro that UNESCO inscribed in 2017.
Read the complete Defensive System of Zadar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Defensive System of Zadar is where the day begins. Next is Paklenica National Park.
Paklenica is a place where the Velebit mountains drop in a wall to the Adriatic. The national park, created in 1949, protects two gorges, Mala and Velika Paklenica, which cut into the limestone like a pair of knife wounds, with vertical walls up to four hundred metres high. The big wall of Anića Kuk is a famous climbing area, and on a clear day you can watch climbers as small as ants. Between the walls, the path winds through black pine and beech forest, with the sound of a stream and the smell of resin. Griffon vultures nest on the cliffs and often circle overhead, and the caves in the hills hold bats and old stories.
Read the complete Paklenica National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paklenica National Park comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Plitvice is sixteen lakes arranged in a staircase, linked by waterfalls and bordered by beech and fir forest, all coloured an unreal turquoise by the minerals in the water. The lakes form because the water is rich in calcium carbonate, which settles out as travertine, or tufa, on moss and plants, building natural dams that grow slowly over the centuries. It is a living process, which is why the park is protected, and why visitors have to keep to the wooden walkways that wind across the water. UNESCO listed it in 1979, and it is today Croatia's most visited natural site.
Read the complete Plitvice Lakes National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 207 km into the recorded legs you reach Plitvice Lakes National Park. Next is Hajdučki i Rožanski kukovi.
The Hajdučki and Rožanski Kukovi are a field of limestone towers in the northern Velebit, a landscape of pale spires, pinnacles and karst pavements that look like a city abandoned by giants. They sit in the Northern Velebit National Park, a long mountain range that parallels the Adriatic coast and shelters the Croatian interior from the sea. The sea is close, and the contrast is part of the appeal: bare white stone and wind above, blue water far below.
Read the complete Hajdučki i Rožanski kukovi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hajdučki i Rožanski kukovi, about halfway. Next is back through Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Plitvice Lakes National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Plitvice Lakes National Park sits at 258 km, about halfway. Next is back through Paklenica National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paklenica National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paklenica National Park comes up about 571 km into the recorded legs. Next is Defensive System of Zadar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Defensive System of Zadar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Defensive System of Zadar closes the day.
Defensive System of Zadar → Paklenica National Park is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paklenica National Park → Plitvice Lakes National Park is 153 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Plitvice Lakes National Park → Hajdučki i Rožanski kukovi is 119 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Hajdučki i Rožanski kukovi → back through Plitvice Lakes National Park is 118 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Plitvice Lakes National Park → back through Paklenica National Park is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Paklenica National Park → Defensive System of Zadar is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.