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 558 km round trip from Prača - roughly 12 h 54 in the saddle. The stops in between: Gvozno, Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup, Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar and Bijača. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 50 km this is Bosnia Mostar to Sarajevo Mountain Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Grey limestone slabs lie in the grass at Hrančići like a congregation that sat down six hundred years ago and never got up. These are stećci, the carved medieval tombstones that are found across Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours, and the group at Kučarin is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of stećci graveyards in 2016. Some are plain chests, some are gabled like little houses, and a few carry reliefs of spirals, vines, shields or figures with raised hands that still nobody fully agrees how to read.
Read the complete Kučarin in Hrančići write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kučarin in Hrančići is where the day begins. Next is Gvozno.
Out on the high karst plateau around Kalinovik, south of Sarajevo, the land opens into wide pastures and rocky hills at well over a thousand metres, ringed by the mountains of Treskavica, Lelija and Zelengora. Here and there, half-hidden in the grass, lie stećci, the carved medieval tombstones that are unique to this corner of the Balkans. The necropolis at Gvozno is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of stećci, which spans Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Read the complete Gvozno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gvozno comes up about 74 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup.
The Greek hillock, Grčka glavica, is a misleading name: the medieval tombstones that crown it have nothing to do with Greece. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, folk tradition often credited the stećci, the great carved medieval tombstones of the region, to Greeks, giants or other mysterious ancestors, and the names have stuck. The necropolis near the village of Biskup, in the hills south of Konjic, is a group of these stones, some decorated with reliefs of crosses, rosettes, hunting scenes or figures, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of stećci medieval tombstone graveyards, listed in 2016.
Read the complete Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 156 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 328 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 429 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup. Next is back through Gvozno.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gvozno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gvozno, late in the day. Next is Kučarin in Hrančići.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kučarin in Hrančići write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 558 km.
Kučarin in Hrančići → Gvozno is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gvozno → Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup → Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar → Bijača is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bijača → back through Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 48 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 Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup is 101 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grčka glavica in the village of Biskup → back through Gvozno is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gvozno → Kučarin in Hrančići is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.