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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
413 km from Dobšiná to Dobšiná, about 7 h 32 of riding. On the way it passes Component of Plešivec plateau, Component of Esztramos Hill, Component of Koniar plateau and Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Slovakia into Hungary - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 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 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component of Esztramos Hill.
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.
about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach Component of Esztramos Hill. 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, about halfway. Next is Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill.
The Szendrő-Rudabánya hills are a modest ridge of low wooded hills in northeastern Hungary, between the Bódva and Sajó valleys, and they are not on any tourist itinerary. That is a large part of their charm. This is the quiet borderland near Slovakia, with small villages, orchards, vineyards and forests of oak and hornbeam, where the roads are empty and the pace slows to that of a cart.
Read the complete Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill sits at 179 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 264 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through 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.
about 324 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component of Esztramos Hill. 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 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.
The route ends here after 413 km.
Dobšinská Ice Cave → Component of Plešivec plateau is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Plešivec plateau → Component of Esztramos Hill is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Esztramos Hill → Component of Koniar plateau is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Koniar plateau → Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill → back through Component of Koniar plateau is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Koniar plateau → back through Component of Esztramos Hill is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Esztramos Hill → back through Component of Plešivec plateau is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Plešivec plateau → Dobšinská Ice Cave is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.