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 481 km round trip from Bileća - roughly 9 h 49 in the saddle. The stops in between: Potkuk in Bitunja, Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar, Dugo polje at Blidinje and Ravanjska vrata. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Montenegro into Bosnia & Herzegovina - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Grebnice, a name that simply means something like grave-stones, is a field of stećci near Bileća in eastern Herzegovina. These are the massive carved tombstones of medieval Bosnia and its neighbours, cut from local limestone between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, shaped like chests, slabs or little houses with gabled roofs, and sometimes covered with spirals, rosettes, swords, shields and dancing figures. UNESCO listed a selection of the most important sites together in 2016, and the necropolis here is one of the eastern Herzegovinian groups. Standing among them on a still afternoon, with the grass grown up around the stones, is a strangely moving experience.
Read the complete Grebnice write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grebnice is where the day begins. Next is Potkuk in Bitunja.
Grey limestone, thin grass, a scatter of oaks and juniper, and among them heavy blocks of carved stone lying where they were set some six or seven hundred years ago. Potkuk, near the hamlet of Bitunja in eastern Herzegovina, is one of the necropolises of stećci, the medieval tombstones that were added to the World Heritage list in 2016 together with sites across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Read the complete Potkuk in Bitunja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Potkuk in Bitunja comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar.
The Old Bridge in Mostar is a single stone arch, slender and impossibly high, leaping across the emerald-green Neretva between two fortified towers. The Ottomans built it in the 1560s, designed by an architect named Mimar Hayruddin, and for more than four centuries it stood as a symbol of the city. On 9 November 1993, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was shelled and collapsed into the river. It was rebuilt with the original techniques and stone recovered from the riverbed and reopened in 2004, and the following year UNESCO listed the Old Bridge Area as a symbol of reconciliation and cultural coexistence.
Read the complete Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar. Next is Dugo polje at Blidinje.
High on a karst plateau in Herzegovina, between the massive mountains of Čvrsnica and Vran, lies Blidinje, a wide upland valley of meadows, limestone outcrops and black pine forests at around twelve hundred metres. At Dugo polje, the long field, a cluster of medieval tombstones stands in the grass, carved with crosses, spirals, rosettes, hunting scenes and human figures. These are stećci, the distinctive gravestones of the medieval Balkans, made between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Dugo polje is one of the most impressive groups, part of the collection of stećci sites listed by UNESCO in 2016 across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Read the complete Dugo polje at Blidinje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dugo polje at Blidinje, about halfway. Next is Ravanjska vrata.
The Kupres plateau is one of the high, open places of Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than a thousand metres up, with wide grasslands, cold winters and a sky that seems close enough to touch. Ravanjska vrata, the gates of Ravno, lies in this landscape, between Kupres and Tomislavgrad, and it is known for a group of stećci, the carved medieval tombstones that are found across Bosnia, Herzegovina and the neighbouring countries. UNESCO listed a selection of these necropolises in 2016. The stones are often decorated with spirals, crosses, hunting scenes and figures with raised hands, and their makers remain a subject of debate.
Read the complete Ravanjska vrata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravanjska vrata sits at 193 km, about halfway. Next is back through Dugo polje at Blidinje.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dugo polje at Blidinje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dugo polje at Blidinje comes up about 302 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 379 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar. Next is back through Potkuk in Bitunja.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Potkuk in Bitunja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Potkuk in Bitunja, late in the day. Next is Grebnice.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grebnice write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 481 km.
Grebnice → Potkuk in Bitunja is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Potkuk in Bitunja → Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar → Dugo polje at Blidinje is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dugo polje at Blidinje → Ravanjska vrata is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravanjska vrata → back through Dugo polje at Blidinje is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dugo polje at Blidinje → back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar → back through Potkuk in Bitunja is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Potkuk in Bitunja → Grebnice is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.