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.
664 km from Foča to Foča, about 16 h 31 of riding. On the way it passes Durmitor National Park, Grebnice, Vjetrenica Cave and back through Grebnice. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Bosnia & Herzegovina into Montenegro - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 105 km this is Montenegro Durmitor Ring, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Drina is a river that runs through every story in this part of the Balkans, and Foča sits on one of its finest stretches. The town, with about fourteen thousand people, lies where the Drina meets the Ćehotina, among steep green mountains, and the old Aladža mosque, a painted sixteenth-century building, was one of the most beautiful Ottoman monuments in the region before it was destroyed in the war of the 1990s and then rebuilt. Foča carries that history quietly, and it is a place where you should listen more than talk.
Read the complete Mramor in Vrbica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mramor in Vrbica is where the day begins. Next is Durmitor National Park.
Durmitor is the kind of mountain range that makes you pull over every few minutes. In the north of Montenegro, a limestone massif rises above a high plateau around Žabljak, with jagged peaks, glacial lakes and deep canyons carved by the Tara, Piva and Sušica rivers. The national park was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1980, and it includes the Tara canyon, one of the deepest gorges in Europe. Glaciers shaped the range, leaving cirques and lakes scattered across the high ground, of which the Black Lake near Žabljak is the best known.
Read the complete Durmitor National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Durmitor National Park comes up about 105 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grebnice.
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.
about 247 km into the recorded legs you reach Grebnice. 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.
Vjetrenica Cave, about halfway. Next is back through 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 through Grebnice sits at 216 km, about halfway. Next is back through Durmitor National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Durmitor National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Durmitor National Park comes up about 560 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mramor in Vrbica.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mramor in Vrbica write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mramor in Vrbica closes the day.
Mramor in Vrbica → Durmitor National Park is 105 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Durmitor National Park → Grebnice is 142 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Grebnice → Vjetrenica Cave is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vjetrenica Cave → back through Grebnice is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grebnice → back through Durmitor National Park is 142 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Durmitor National Park → Mramor in Vrbica is 105 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.