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 136 km round trip from Bileća - roughly 3 h 18 in the saddle. The stops in between: Potkuk in Bitunja, Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards and back through Potkuk in Bitunja. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Montenegro into Bosnia & Herzegovina - carry ID and check the toll rules.
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 Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards.
Radimlja, just outside Stolac in Herzegovina, is the finest of the stećak graveyards, and it lies right beside the main road, which makes it one of the easiest pieces of medieval Europe to stop for. Stećci are massive limestone tombstones, shaped like chests, slabs or little gabled houses, carved between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries across the medieval kingdom of Bosnia and neighbouring lands. Many are decorated with reliefs: spirals, vines, crescents, stars, hunting scenes, dancers holding hands, and knights with swords and shields, and one figure at Radimlja raises an oversized right hand in what may be a greeting or a blessing. In 2016 UNESCO listed a group of these graveyards across four countries together.
Read the complete Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards. 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.
Back at Grebnice. That is the ride.
Grebnice → Potkuk in Bitunja is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Potkuk in Bitunja → Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards → back through Potkuk in Bitunja is 26 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.