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 416 km round trip from Bileća - roughly 9 h 55 in the saddle. On the way it passes Potkuk in Bitunja, Vjetrenica Cave, Lokrum Island and back through Lokrum Island. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 50 km this is Adriatic Highway, Jadranska Magistrala, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Vjetrenica Cave.
The karst country inland from Dubrovnik is a landscape of grey limestone hills, stony fields and long, flat-bottomed valleys called poljes, which flood in winter and dry out in summer. Popovo Polje, on the Bosnian side of the border, is one of the largest, and at its edge, near the village of Zavala, lies Vjetrenica, the most famous cave in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its name means wind cave, from the strong current of air that blows out of its entrance, cool in summer and noticeable from a distance.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 107 km into the recorded legs you reach Vjetrenica Cave. Next is Lokrum Island.
From the walls of Dubrovnik you look straight across a short stretch of sea to a low, dark green island covered in pines and holm oaks. That is Lokrum, and it is the closest thing the city has to a back garden. No cars or motorbikes are allowed on it, and nobody may stay overnight. You leave the bike on the mainland, catch one of the regular boats from the old harbour, and in about a quarter of an hour you step onto a quay with peacocks strutting about as if they owned the place, which they more or less do.
Read the complete Lokrum Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lokrum Island, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vjetrenica Cave sits at 162 km, about halfway. Next is back through Lokrum Island.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lokrum Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lokrum Island comes up about 257 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vjetrenica Cave.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 307 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vjetrenica Cave. 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 416 km.
Grebnice → Potkuk in Bitunja is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Potkuk in Bitunja → Vjetrenica Cave is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vjetrenica Cave → Lokrum Island is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lokrum Island → Vjetrenica Cave is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vjetrenica Cave → back through Lokrum Island is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lokrum Island → back through Vjetrenica Cave is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vjetrenica Cave → back through Potkuk in Bitunja is 65 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.