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 Gračanica it runs 612 km to Gračanica; allow about 15 h 21 of riding. On the way it passes Čengića Bara, Grčko groblje, Durmitor National Park and back through Durmitor National Park. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia - 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 52 km this is Montenegro Durmitor Ring, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Umoljani clings to the edge of the Bjelašnica massif above the Rakitnica canyon, an hour or so southwest of Sarajevo by road, and it is one of those mountain villages that feel a world away from the cities below. Stone houses with steep roofs, a small mosque and a scattering of shepherds' huts sit on a high green plateau, and nearby, at a spot known as Dolovi, a group of medieval tombstones called stećci lies in the grass. These carved limestone monuments, made between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, are found across Bosnia and neighbouring countries and were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2016. Their reliefs of hunters, dancers, spirals and crescent moons are a fascinating window onto a culture that left few written records.
Read the complete Dolovi in the village of Umoljani write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dolovi in the village of Umoljani is where the day begins. Next is Čengića Bara.
Čengića Bara is a high pasture on the plateau around Kalinovik, in the mountainous heart of eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is one of the most remote of the stećci sites listed by UNESCO in 2016. A group of medieval tombstones stands in the open grassland, carved with simple decorations, weathered by centuries of wind, snow and sun. Few visitors make it here, and that is part of the appeal. The stones seem to belong to the landscape itself, as much as the rocks and the grass around them.
Read the complete Čengića Bara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Čengića Bara comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grčko groblje.
Greek cemetery is what the name means, and you will find the same name attached to old graveyards across the mountains of Bosnia and Montenegro. For generations, local people attributed the mysterious carved tombstones of the medieval period to the Greeks, a vague term for ancient or foreign peoples, because nobody remembered who had made them. In fact, these stećci were carved by the medieval communities of the region between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and the groups that bear the name Grčko groblje are among the many sites included in the UNESCO listing.
Read the complete Grčko groblje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 129 km into the recorded legs you reach Grčko groblje. Next is Durmitor National Park.
Durmitor is the kind of mountain range that makes you pull over every few minutes. In the north of Montenegro, a limestone massif rises above a high plateau around Žabljak, with jagged peaks, glacial lakes and deep canyons carved by the Tara, Piva and Sušica rivers. The national park was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1980, and it includes the Tara canyon, one of the deepest gorges in Europe. Glaciers shaped the range, leaving cirques and lakes scattered across the high ground, of which the Black Lake near Žabljak is the best known.
Read the complete Durmitor National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durmitor National Park, about halfway.
Pljevlja lies in a high basin in the north of Montenegro, an hour or so from the great canyon of the Tara and the peaks of Durmitor, and it is a town that people rarely visit on purpose. It has a coal mine and a power station, and in winter smoke can hang in the valley. But the old centre has two buildings that deserve a stop, the Husein-pasha mosque, a sixteenth-century Ottoman building with a tall slender minaret and painted interior, and the Holy Trinity monastery, with its fine iconostasis, carved by local craftsmen in the nineteenth century. The mix of mosque and church a few minutes apart says a lot about this part of the Balkans.
Read the complete Grčko groblje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grčko groblje sits at 198 km, about halfway. Next is back through Durmitor National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Durmitor National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Durmitor National Park comes up about 430 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grčko groblje.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grčko groblje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 482 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grčko groblje. Next is back through Čengića Bara.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Čengića Bara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Čengića Bara, late in the day. Next is Dolovi in the village of Umoljani.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dolovi in the village of Umoljani write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 612 km.
Dolovi in the village of Umoljani → Čengića Bara is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Čengića Bara → Grčko groblje is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grčko groblje → Durmitor National Park is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durmitor National Park → Grčko groblje is 124 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Grčko groblje → back through Durmitor National Park is 125 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Durmitor National Park → back through Grčko groblje is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grčko groblje → back through Čengića Bara is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Čengića Bara → Dolovi in the village of Umoljani is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.