Stara Planina Mountain Loop

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Pirot

   Pirot is a city in the south-east of Serbia, in a valley of the Nišava river close to the Bulgarian border, and it has long been a crossroads between the Balkans and the east. The Nišava runs on through the Sicevo gorge toward Niš, and the railway and the old Constantinople road both follow it, so Pirot has seen armies, traders and travellers for centuries. The town is surrounded by hills, with the long range of Stara Planina, the Old Mountain, rising to the north and east, and on clear days the high ridgeline looks almost alpine.

   Read the complete Pirot write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Pirot sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Knjazevac.

2. 2. Knjaževac

   Knjaževac lies in eastern Serbia, in the valley of the Trgoviški Timok, with the high wall of Stara Planina to the south and the lower hills of the Timok region to the north. The town is small, with about twenty-five thousand people counting the wider municipality, and its character is somewhat sleepy, with a central square, neat parks and a river that runs through the middle. It was called Gurgusovac in the nineteenth century, and the surrounding area still has some of the character of the old borderland.

   Read the complete Knjazevac write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Knjaževac comes up 103 km in.

Recorded source links

Source