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 488 km round trip from Tarcal - roughly 10 h 03 in the saddle. On the way it passes Rákóczi Wine Cellar, Component of Esztramos Hill, Component of Plešivec plateau and Dobšinská Ice Cave. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Hungary into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Tokaj is the place where the world's first classified wine region was drawn on a map, in 1737, long before Burgundy or Bordeaux got round to the idea. The wine country of Tokaj-Hegyalja lies in the far north-east of Hungary, where the Zemplén hills, old volcanoes worn down into rounded cones, fall away to the plain at the meeting of the Tisza and Bodrog rivers. Tarcal and Tokaj sit at the foot of the slope, and the vines climb the south-facing hills above them, in a patchwork of terraces, stone walls and small plots.
Read the complete Tokaj Wine Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tokaj Wine Region is where the day begins. Next is Rákóczi Wine Cellar.
Sárospatak is an old town on the Bodrog river, right where the foothills of the Zemplén range run out into the plain, and in Hungarian history it carries more weight than its size suggests. It was a seat of the Rákóczi family, and the castle in town was one of their strongholds in the long wars against the Habsburgs. Local tradition also claims it as the birthplace of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, in 1207, and the Reformed College here, founded in the sixteenth century, once counted the Czech educator Comenius among its teachers. Not bad for a small place at the edge of the map.
Read the complete Rákóczi Wine Cellar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rákóczi Wine Cellar comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component of Esztramos Hill.
Esztramos is a lumpy limestone hill rising from the valley of the Bódva in north-eastern Hungary, a stone's throw from the Slovak border. For much of the twentieth century it was quarried for limestone and iron ore, and in the process the miners broke into caves hidden inside it, full of crystal formations. The Rákóczi Cave, the best known of them, has delicate aragonite crystals and pools, and the hill now forms part of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, a World Heritage site shared between the two countries. Visits to the cave are limited and usually need to be booked, so check before you count on getting inside.
Read the complete Component of Esztramos Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 154 km into the recorded legs you reach Component of Esztramos Hill. Next is Component of Plešivec plateau.
The Slovak Karst is a world of limestone plateaus and deep gorges in southern Slovakia, along the Hungarian border, and the Plešivec plateau is one of its great tablelands, a high, flat-topped block of rock rising steeply above the valleys of the Slaná and the Štítnik rivers. Its surface is a rolling steppe of grass and scrub, pitted with sinkholes, and beneath it lies a maze of caves and abysses, part of the UNESCO site of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst.
Read the complete Component of Plešivec plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component of Plešivec plateau, about halfway. Next is Dobšinská Ice Cave.
Step out of a warm summer day into the Dobšinská Ice Cave and the temperature drops to just below freezing within a few metres. The cave, on the northern edge of the Slovak Paradise in eastern Slovakia, holds a vast mass of ice, tens of thousands of cubic metres, with frozen floors, walls and columns that have built up over thousands of years. It was explored in 1870 by Eugen Ruffinyi, opened to visitors soon after, and became one of the first caves in Europe to be lit by electricity. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, shared with Hungary.
Read the complete Dobšinská Ice Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dobšinská Ice Cave sits at 197 km, about halfway. Next is back through Component of Plešivec plateau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component of Plešivec plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component of Plešivec plateau comes up about 289 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Component of Esztramos Hill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component of Esztramos Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 335 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component of Esztramos Hill. Next is back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rákóczi Wine Cellar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar, late in the day. Next is Tokaj Wine Region.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tokaj Wine Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 488 km.
Tokaj Wine Region → Rákóczi Wine Cellar is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rákóczi Wine Cellar → Component of Esztramos Hill is 114 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Component of Esztramos Hill → Component of Plešivec plateau is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Plešivec plateau → Dobšinská Ice Cave is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dobšinská Ice Cave → back through Component of Plešivec plateau is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Plešivec plateau → back through Component of Esztramos Hill is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Esztramos Hill → back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar is 114 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar → Tokaj Wine Region is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.