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 244 km round trip from Mostar - roughly 4 h 52 in the saddle. The stops in between: Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, Potkuk in Bitunja, Radimlja and Bijača. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Potkuk in Bitunja. Next is Radimlja.
Above the Bregava river valley, a few kilometres from Stolac in Herzegovina, a hillside is covered with huge stone slabs that look like sarcophagi and tilting boxes. These are stećci, medieval tombstones that were carved in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Radimlja is the best known cemetery of them. Over a hundred of them stand here, and several carry reliefs of exceptional quality, showing hunting scenes, riders with spears, dancing in a circle, stylised crescent moons, spirals and vines. In 2016 UNESCO listed a group of these sites together.
Read the complete Radimlja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Radimlja, 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 121 km, about halfway. Next is back through Radimlja.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Radimlja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Radimlja comes up about 160 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 185 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Potkuk in Bitunja. 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.
back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 244 km.
Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar → Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards → Potkuk in Bitunja is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Potkuk in Bitunja → Radimlja is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Radimlja → Bijača is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bijača → back through Radimlja is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Radimlja → back through Potkuk in Bitunja is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Potkuk in Bitunja → back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards → 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.