CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 740 km round trip from Dovhe - roughly 18 h 19 in the saddle. On the way it passes Synevyr - Vilshany, Svydovets, Maramarosh and Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Ukraine into Romania - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
In Transcarpathia, the westernmost corner of Ukraine, the Carpathians drop down to a plain that feels more Central European than Eastern. The region was part of Hungary for a thousand years, then Czechoslovakia, then briefly independent, then the Soviet Union and finally Ukraine, and the villages carry a mix of languages, churches and foods. Zacharovanyi Krai, the Enchanted Land, is the name of a nature park in the hills of this region, with beech forests, meadows, mineral springs and small rivers.
Read the complete Zacharovanyi Krai - Velykyi Dil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zacharovanyi Krai - Velykyi Dil is where the day begins. Next is Synevyr - Vilshany.
Lake Synevyr is the largest mountain lake in the Ukrainian Carpathians, a dark, deep pool surrounded by spruce forest at about a thousand metres, formed thousands of years ago when a landslide blocked a valley. It is called the sea eye, and on a calm day, it reflects the trees and the sky like a mirror. A sad legend tells of a count's daughter, Syn, who fell in love with a shepherd, Vyr; the count had the young man killed, and the girl wept so much that her tears formed the lake. The lake is the centrepiece of the Synevyr National Park, which protects a large area of old forests in Zakarpattia, and nearby there is a rehabilitation centre for brown bears rescued from captivity, where you can see them in large forest enclosures.
Read the complete Synevyr - Vilshany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Synevyr - Vilshany comes up 47 km in. Next is Svydovets.
The Svydovets is a long, high ridge in the Ukrainian Carpathians, rising above the upper Tisza valley near the town of Rakhiv in Zakarpattia. Its southern and northern slopes hold some of the wildest primeval beech forest left in Europe, protected as part of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and included in the UNESCO site of Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. Above the trees lie broad alpine meadows, the polonyna, where Hutsul shepherds traditionally drove their flocks each summer, with glacial lakes tucked below the ridge.
Read the complete Svydovets write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
94 km in you reach Svydovets. Next is Maramarosh.
On the map, the line between Romania and Ukraine runs along the Tisza river here, and on either side of it the Carpathians rise in forested ridges. Maramarosh is the old name for the whole region, Maramureș to Romanians, and it is also the name of a protected forest within the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve on the Ukrainian side, one component of the World Heritage inscription for ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe. These are forests where beech trees have grown undisturbed since the last ice age, with giants several hundred years old and a richness of life that has vanished from most of Europe.
Read the complete Maramarosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maramarosh, about halfway. Next is Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.
Ieud is a long village strung along a side valley of the Iza river in Maramureș, in Romania's far north, and it has not one but two wooden churches. The one on the hill, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, is one of the eight Wooden Churches of Maramureș listed by UNESCO, and it is one of the oldest, with a tall, slender bell tower and a double roof of wooden shingles that reaches almost to the ground. Inside, the walls are covered with eighteenth-century paintings on wood and cloth, with scenes from the Last Judgement in which the damned are dressed in the clothes of the local enemies of the time. The church is also known for the Ieud Codex, a manuscript found here, one of the oldest texts written in the Romanian language.
Read the complete Church of the Nativity of the Virgin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Nativity of the Virgin sits at 188 km, about halfway. Next is back through Maramarosh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maramarosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Maramarosh comes up 234 km in. Next is back through Svydovets.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Svydovets write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
281 km in you reach back through Svydovets. Next is back through Synevyr - Vilshany.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Synevyr - Vilshany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Synevyr - Vilshany, late in the day. Next is Zacharovanyi Krai - Velykyi Dil.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zacharovanyi Krai - Velykyi Dil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 740 km.
Zacharovanyi Krai - Velykyi Dil → Synevyr - Vilshany is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Synevyr - Vilshany → Svydovets is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Svydovets → Maramarosh is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maramarosh → Church of the Nativity of the Virgin is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Nativity of the Virgin → back through Maramarosh is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maramarosh → back through Svydovets is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Svydovets → back through Synevyr - Vilshany is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Synevyr - Vilshany → Zacharovanyi Krai - Velykyi Dil is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.