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.
A 217 km round trip from Žabljak - roughly 4 h 44 in the saddle. On the way it passes Bare Žugića, Grčko groblje and back through Bare Žugića. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 27 km this is Montenegro Durmitor Ring, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Bare Žugića.
Near Žabljak, on the high plateau below Durmitor, a group of medieval tombstones lies in a meadow at Bare Žugića. These are stećci, massive carved stones that mark graves from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, found across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. Some are simple slabs, others shaped like houses or sarcophagi, decorated with carvings of spirals, crosses, vines, hunting scenes, dancers and figures with raised hands. Their makers belonged to various Christian communities of the medieval Balkans, and their meaning is still debated. In 2016 UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites, including Bare Žugića, as the Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards. Seeing these stones in a high meadow, surrounded by mountains, is quietly moving.
Read the complete Bare Žugića write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bare Žugića comes up about 27 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 109 km into the recorded legs you reach Grčko groblje. Next is back through Bare Žugića.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bare Žugića write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bare Žugića, late in the day. Next is 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 at Durmitor National Park. That is the ride.
Durmitor National Park → Bare Žugića is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bare Žugića → Grčko groblje is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grčko groblje → back through Bare Žugića is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bare Žugića → Durmitor National Park is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.