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.
The stops in between: Grčko groblje, Durmitor National Park and back through Grčko groblje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Serbia into Montenegro - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 125 km this is Montenegro Durmitor Ring, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The monastery of Studenica lies in a green gorge of the Golija mountains in central Serbia, where a clear river runs down through beech and oak woods toward the Ibar. Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the medieval Serbian state, began building it in the 1190s, and it became the model for all the monasteries that followed. Nemanja himself abdicated in 1196 and later became a monk, dying on Mount Athos in 1199. His son, Saint Sava, brought his father's remains back here, and they rest in the church today.
Read the complete Studenica Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Studenica Monastery is where the day begins. Next is Grčko groblje.
Pljevlja lies in a high basin in the north of Montenegro, an hour or so from the great canyon of the Tara and the peaks of Durmitor, and it is a town that people rarely visit on purpose. It has a coal mine and a power station, and in winter smoke can hang in the valley. But the old centre has two buildings that deserve a stop, the Husein-pasha mosque, a sixteenth-century Ottoman building with a tall slender minaret and painted interior, and the Holy Trinity monastery, with its fine iconostasis, carved by local craftsmen in the nineteenth century. The mix of mosque and church a few minutes apart says a lot about this part of the Balkans.
Read the complete Grčko groblje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grčko groblje comes up about 143 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 268 km into the recorded legs you reach Durmitor National Park. Next is back through Grčko groblje.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grčko groblje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grčko groblje, late in the day. Next is Studenica Monastery.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Studenica Monastery write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Studenica Monastery. That is the ride.
Studenica Monastery → Grčko groblje is 143 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Grčko groblje → Durmitor National Park is 125 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Durmitor National Park → back through Grčko groblje is 123 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Grčko groblje → Studenica Monastery is 145 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.