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.
458 km from Donji Vakuf to Donji Vakuf, about 8 h 56 of riding. On the way it passes Ravanjska vrata, Dugo polje at Blidinje, Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar and Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Prašuma means primeval forest, and Janj is one of the few places in Europe where that word is literally true. In the hills above the Janj river, between Šipovo and Donji Vakuf in central Bosnia, a block of mixed beech, fir and spruce forest has survived without logging, its oldest trees reaching enormous heights and girths. Since 2021 it has been part of the World Heritage site of ancient beech forests of Europe, joining a chain of reserves from the Carpathians to the Pyrenees.
Read the complete Prašuma Janj write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prašuma Janj is where the day begins. Next is Ravanjska vrata.
The Kupres plateau is one of the high, open places of Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than a thousand metres up, with wide grasslands, cold winters and a sky that seems close enough to touch. Ravanjska vrata, the gates of Ravno, lies in this landscape, between Kupres and Tomislavgrad, and it is known for a group of stećci, the carved medieval tombstones that are found across Bosnia, Herzegovina and the neighbouring countries. UNESCO listed a selection of these necropolises in 2016. The stones are often decorated with spirals, crosses, hunting scenes and figures with raised hands, and their makers remain a subject of debate.
Read the complete Ravanjska vrata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ravanjska vrata comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dugo polje at Blidinje.
High on a karst plateau in Herzegovina, between the massive mountains of Čvrsnica and Vran, lies Blidinje, a wide upland valley of meadows, limestone outcrops and black pine forests at around twelve hundred metres. At Dugo polje, the long field, a cluster of medieval tombstones stands in the grass, carved with crosses, spirals, rosettes, hunting scenes and human figures. These are stećci, the distinctive gravestones of the medieval Balkans, made between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Dugo polje is one of the most impressive groups, part of the collection of stećci sites listed by UNESCO in 2016 across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Read the complete Dugo polje at Blidinje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 119 km into the recorded legs you reach Dugo polje at Blidinje. 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 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 sits at 178 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 263 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Dugo polje at Blidinje.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dugo polje at Blidinje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 341 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Dugo polje at Blidinje. Next is back through Ravanjska vrata.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ravanjska vrata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ravanjska vrata, late in the day. Next is Prašuma Janj.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prašuma Janj write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 458 km.
Prašuma Janj → Ravanjska vrata is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ravanjska vrata → Dugo polje at Blidinje is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dugo polje at Blidinje → Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar is 77 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 → 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 → back through Dugo polje at Blidinje is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dugo polje at Blidinje → back through Ravanjska vrata is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ravanjska vrata → Prašuma Janj is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.