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 361 km round trip from Corfu - roughly 9 h 18 in the saddle. The stops in between: Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra, Zagori Cultural Landscape and back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Greece into Albania - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 72 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Corfu is where the Greek world met Venice, and the old town shows it in every lane. For more than four centuries, from the late fourteenth century to the end of the eighteenth, the island belonged to the Venetian Republic, which fortified it against the Ottomans, so the town has two great fortresses, tall narrow houses with washing lines, and a maze of alleys called kantounia, which are cooler and more intimate than any grand boulevard. UNESCO listed the old town in 2007. The French arrived briefly under Napoleon and left the Liston, an arcade modelled on Paris's Rue de Rivoli, and the British, who ruled the islands from 1815 to 1864, left cricket, which is still played on the Spianada, the broad green esplanade by the sea, and ginger beer, called tsitsibira.
Read the complete Old Town of Corfu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Town of Corfu is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra.
Gjirokastër is built of stone, and it means that literally. The old houses climbing the slopes below the castle are made of grey limestone, roofed with heavy slabs of the same stone, and tall and narrow like small fortresses, with the lower floors used for storage and cisterns and the living quarters above. The town grew under Ottoman rule, and its architecture, preserved as a museum town in the communist era, earned it a place on the UNESCO list in 2005, with Berat added in 2008. The castle, one of the largest in the Balkans, holds a collection of artillery, a captured American aircraft from the Cold War, and a prison with a grim history.
Read the complete Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zagori Cultural Landscape.
In the mountains north of Ioannina, forty-odd stone villages cling to the slopes of the Pindus, linked by cobbled mule paths and arched bridges that seem to grow out of the rock. This is Zagori, a region of grey slate roofs, plane trees, rushing streams and one of the deepest gorges in the world, Vikos. In 2023 it was added to the World Heritage list as a cultural landscape, recognising how people and mountains shaped each other here over centuries.
Read the complete Zagori Cultural Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 180 km into the recorded legs you reach Zagori Cultural Landscape. Next is back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra, late in the day. Next is Old Town of Corfu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Town of Corfu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Old Town of Corfu. That is the ride.
Old Town of Corfu → Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra → Zagori Cultural Landscape is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zagori Cultural Landscape → back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra → Old Town of Corfu is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.