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.
531 km from Asprángeloi to Asprángeloi, about 15 h 26 of riding. The stops in between: Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra, Butrint, Old Town of Corfu and back through Old Town of Corfu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Greece into Albania - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 68 km this is Albanian Riviera, SH8, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
21 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
In the mountains north of Ioannina, forty-odd stone villages cling to the slopes of the Pindus, linked by cobbled mule paths and arched bridges that seem to grow out of the rock. This is Zagori, a region of grey slate roofs, plane trees, rushing streams and one of the deepest gorges in the world, Vikos. In 2023 it was added to the World Heritage list as a cultural landscape, recognising how people and mountains shaped each other here over centuries.
Read the complete Zagori Cultural Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zagori Cultural Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra.
Gjirokastër is built of stone, and it means that literally. The old houses climbing the slopes below the castle are made of grey limestone, roofed with heavy slabs of the same stone, and tall and narrow like small fortresses, with the lower floors used for storage and cisterns and the living quarters above. The town grew under Ottoman rule, and its architecture, preserved as a museum town in the communist era, earned it a place on the UNESCO list in 2005, with Berat added in 2008. The castle, one of the largest in the Balkans, holds a collection of artillery, a captured American aircraft from the Cold War, and a prison with a grim history.
Read the complete Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra comes up about 92 km into the recorded legs. Next is Butrint.
At the southern tip of Albania, on a wooded headland between a lagoon and the narrow Vivari channel, the ruins of Butrint have been layering up for close to three thousand years. Greek colonists from Corfu, just across the strait, built a sanctuary and a theatre here; the Romans made it a colony and added baths, an aqueduct and villas; the Byzantines raised a great baptistery with a mosaic floor of birds and animals; and the Venetians left a fortified tower and a triangular castle by the water. Wandering the shaded paths among laurel and eucalyptus, you move from one century to the next in a few steps, with frogs croaking in the flooded parts of the agora and the lagoon glinting through the trees. The site has been on the UNESCO list since 1992 and is the heart of a national park.
Read the complete Butrint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 160 km into the recorded legs you reach Butrint. Next is Old Town of Corfu.
Corfu is where the Greek world met Venice, and the old town shows it in every lane. For more than four centuries, from the late fourteenth century to the end of the eighteenth, the island belonged to the Venetian Republic, which fortified it against the Ottomans, so the town has two great fortresses, tall narrow houses with washing lines, and a maze of alleys called kantounia, which are cooler and more intimate than any grand boulevard. UNESCO listed the old town in 2007. The French arrived briefly under Napoleon and left the Liston, an arcade modelled on Paris's Rue de Rivoli, and the British, who ruled the islands from 1815 to 1864, left cricket, which is still played on the Spianada, the broad green esplanade by the sea, and ginger beer, called tsitsibira.
Read the complete Old Town of Corfu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Town of Corfu, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Butrint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Butrint sits at 176 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old Town of Corfu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Town of Corfu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Town of Corfu comes up about 318 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Butrint.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Butrint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 370 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Butrint. Next is back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra, late in the day. Next is Zagori Cultural Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zagori Cultural Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 531 km.
Zagori Cultural Landscape → Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra → Butrint is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Butrint → Old Town of Corfu is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Town of Corfu → Butrint is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Butrint → back through Old Town of Corfu is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Town of Corfu → back through Butrint is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Butrint → back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra → Zagori Cultural Landscape is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.