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.
From Herceg Novi it runs 429 km to Herceg Novi; allow about 11 h 01 of riding. The stops in between: Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K, Lokrum Island, Vjetrenica Cave and Boljuni. It crosses Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 50 km this is Adriatic Highway, Jadranska Magistrala, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Konavle is the long, fertile valley that runs south east of Dubrovnik towards the Montenegrin border, and St. Barbara is a small church at Dubravka, near its upper edge, surrounded by a field of medieval tombstones. These stećci, heavy carved blocks of limestone dating from the late Middle Ages, are part of the cross-border UNESCO listing of stećci cemeteries shared by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. The Dubravka group is one of the most accessible in Croatia, and the setting, with the church, the old stones and the view over the valley, is quietly beautiful.
Read the complete St. Barbara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St. Barbara is where the day begins. Next is Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K.
The Bay of Kotor is a drowned river canyon on the Montenegrin coast, a set of linked basins pushed deep into the limestone mountains, and here at its inner reaches, around Risan and Perast, it feels more like a Norwegian fjord than the Adriatic. The mountains drop almost straight into the water, the villages cling to a thin strip of shore, and the light changes the colour of the sea from green to steel to deep blue as the day goes on. The whole region is on the UNESCO list for its natural beauty and the cultural layering of its little towns.
Read the complete Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lokrum Island.
From the walls of Dubrovnik you look straight across a short stretch of sea to a low, dark green island covered in pines and holm oaks. That is Lokrum, and it is the closest thing the city has to a back garden. No cars or motorbikes are allowed on it, and nobody may stay overnight. You leave the bike on the mainland, catch one of the regular boats from the old harbour, and in about a quarter of an hour you step onto a quay with peacocks strutting about as if they owned the place, which they more or less do.
Read the complete Lokrum Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 130 km into the recorded legs you reach Lokrum Island. 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 Boljuni.
In the stony hills of eastern Herzegovina, a few kilometres from Stolac, a field of grey limestone blocks lies scattered among oak scrub and dry grass. These are stećci, medieval tombstones carved between roughly the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, and Boljuni has a few hundred of them, many decorated with reliefs: rosettes, crescents, spirals, hunters with spears, dancing figures holding hands, a man raising an oversized hand as if in greeting. Nobody fully agrees on who made them or what all the symbols mean, which makes standing among them oddly moving. Together with other cemeteries across Bosnia and Herzegovina and its neighbours, Boljuni is part of the UNESCO site of Stećci Medieval Tombstone Graveyards, inscribed in 2016.
Read the complete Boljuni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boljuni sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vjetrenica Cave.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vjetrenica Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vjetrenica Cave comes up about 252 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Lokrum Island.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lokrum Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 302 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Lokrum Island. Next is back through Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K, late in the day. Next is St. Barbara, 41 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St. Barbara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 429 km.
St. Barbara → Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K → Lokrum Island is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Lokrum Island → Vjetrenica Cave is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vjetrenica Cave → Boljuni is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boljuni → back through Vjetrenica Cave is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vjetrenica Cave → back through Lokrum Island is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lokrum Island → back through Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of K → St. Barbara is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.