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 Nevesinje it runs 351 km to Nevesinje; allow about 6 h 27 of riding. It goes by way of Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar, Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, Bijača and Boljuni. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The Nevesinjsko polje is a broad, flat-floored basin high in the karst of eastern Herzegovina, ringed by bare limestone hills, and at Krekovi, near its edge, a group of stećci known as Kalufi stands in the grass. These medieval tombstones, carved between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, belong to the transnational World Heritage Site inscribed in 2016. At Krekovi you find slabs, chests and gabled forms, some decorated with crosses, rosettes and borders, set in rows facing roughly east to west in the old tradition.
Read the complete Kalufi in Krekovi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalufi in Krekovi is where the day begins. 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.
Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar comes up about 50 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 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards. Next is Bijača.
In western Herzegovina, near the town of Ljubuški and close to the Croatian border, the land is a mix of karst hills, fertile valleys and vineyards, baked by the sun and scented with sage and fig. Near the village of Bijača, the necropolis of stećci, the medieval tombstones that are unique to this region, is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of stećci, spread across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The tombstones, carved with crosses, spirals, figures and inscriptions, stand among the grass and stones, a silent reminder of the people who lived here centuries ago.
Read the complete Bijača write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bijača, about halfway. Next is Boljuni.
In the stony hills of eastern Herzegovina, a few kilometres from Stolac, a field of grey limestone blocks lies scattered among oak scrub and dry grass. These are stećci, medieval tombstones carved between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Boljuni has a few hundred of them, many decorated with reliefs: rosettes, crescents, spirals, hunters with spears, dancing figures holding hands, a man raising an oversized hand as if in greeting. Nobody fully agrees on who made them or what all the symbols mean, which makes standing among them oddly moving. Together with other cemeteries across Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours, Boljuni is part of the UNESCO site of Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, inscribed in 2016.
Read the complete Boljuni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boljuni sits at 152 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bijača.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bijača write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bijača comes up about 230 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 268 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards. 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.
back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar, late in the day. Next is Kalufi in Krekovi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalufi in Krekovi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 351 km.
Kalufi in Krekovi → Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar → Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards → Bijača is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bijača → Boljuni is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boljuni → back through Bijača is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bijača → back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards → back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 33 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 → Kalufi in Krekovi is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.