Ciro Trail: Herzegovina karst

The excursion starts in Čapljina, restaurant Storia, where you can have caffe or breakfast. After coffe in Storia, we continue through the city streets towards the exit from the city and further towards Mogorjelo (Roman Villa Rustica). At the exit from the center of Čapljina, the route passes by the old fortified castle of Mogorjelo from the time of Octavian Augustus, which was discovered during the construction of the Metković – Mostar railway (1884-1885). An archeological monument from Roman times was created on the foundations of the late antique villa Rustica, which was built on the ruins of an older suburban villa.

Within Mogorjelo there is an equestrian club, so if you have enough time you can afford an hour of riding on these noble animals. If you don’t have time to ride, you always have a minute to take photos.

After visiting the Mogorjelo, we cycle through beautiful sections and the old Ćiro bridges over the Neretva, all the way to Dračevo. From Gabela, the route separates to the southeast and crosses the Neretva River over the old railway bridge Tresana, continues over the bridge Krupa and the river of the same name, and enters the town of Dračevo where it passes under the main road M-17. In Dračevo, the bicycle route forks into two sections, the asphalt route that ascends from Svitava to Hutovo, and the macadam route that follows the route of the old narrow-gauge railway through high walls, embankments, through deep cuts to 19 kilometers away from the former railway station in Hutovo.  If you are not a road cyclist at heart, we definitely recommend that you ride the macadam section where you will visit many historic Ćiro buildings, such as the bridge designed by Eifeel (the engineer who designed the Eifeel Tower in Paris). Riding along the section gives a beautiful view of Hutovo polje, while also passing through 10 Ćiro tunnels. We recommend a short break or picnic break at the Brštanica station. From Hutovo selo follows the asphalted and well-marked section all the way to Ravno and further to Zavala, where we end the journey.

Our jurney finis at gesthouse Zavala, but you are not quite finish. Once you arrive at the Zavala restaurant you still have time to visit the Vjetrenica Cave which is only 50 meters from the restaurant.

Vjetrenica is a hydrologically active flowing speleological object with as many as 4 watercourses, and dozens of smaller periodic streams with underground lakes. It is located in the area of the South Dinaric karst, with the entrance at the very edge of Popovo polje, 300m east of the center of the village of Zavala at 260m above sea level, 12km air distance to the Adriatic Sea.

After visiting the Vjetrenica Cave, refreshments will follow in the Zavala restaurant before we finish our trip. Of course, if you want to spend the night in Zavala, it is always an option, since the restaurant Zavala has accommodation facilities, and we must add that the mornings in Zavala are simply amazing and you have to experience them.