Stage map
Stage S7 of the Amazon of Europe Bike Trail begins at the Koprivnica Gymnasium. After leaving the city, your cycle tour will lead you through the picturesque typical Podravina settlements of Herešin, Peteranec and Sigetec. Follow the river bike trail further to Komatnica, a charming place next to the Drava river where you can rest your eyes by observing the untouched nature. As the sections of the Drava and its surroundings in this area are part of Regional Park Mura Drava (the largest protected area in Koprivnica Križevci County), it is a great place to explore its side channels, backwaters and oxbows or wetlands of the old riverbed.
In all settlements all over the daily stage, churches and chapels, well worth a visit, are located. Self-service stations for cyclists are located in Hlebine, Molve, Gola and Đurđevac.
Explore local art
Not far away is the village of Hlebine, pivotal location of the famous School of naive art with its Gallery of Naive Art. Typical for Croatia, naïve artists often made the Drava and its surrounding as well as everyday life motives of locals in those charming places. the main theme for their artistic work. Podravina region is the place where you can take a tour through gallery roads and explore local galleries and admire the paintings and sculptures of naive artists.
Pay a visit to a romantic lake
Continue your cycle tour to Gabajeva Greda where there is also an opportunity to explore Drava surroundings and a beautiful romantic lake, an old Drava oxbow, near the settlement as well. Riding the bike through the giant oak forest leads you on to Molve, a central Marian sanctuary of Podravina. Besides exploring the church and sacral heritage, you can enjoy the romantic flower-decorated square and model watermill, similar to those which worked on the river several decades earlier. Next to Molve is the Čingi Lingi Lake , a good place for swimming and relaxing after a long biking A resting place with a self-service set for cyclists is also placed there. Not far from there is the Drava river, and the route near it leads to Repaš Bridge. Biking up on the bridge rewards you with a breath-taking view of the majestic and wide Drava River, its side channels and the gravel and sand banks and islands, reshaped by the water yearly, and nevertheless visited by terns, little ringed plovers, sandpipers and the occasional cormorant or egret. From this place you can take the best photographs of the real "Amazon of Europe" environment. After crossing the bridge, you enter the Prekodravlje area and picturesque village of Repaš, placed by the famous oak forest. The path on the left from Repaš leads you to Ješkovo Lake, located approximately 8 km away, a true pearl oxbow lake in the shape of a horseshoe – a former meander of the Drava. An access point to the widest part of the Drava riverbed is close by.
Admire the unique fauna and flora
On the right side from Repaš, after riding several kilometres through the Repaš forest you can enter the Čambina Significant Landscape. This breath-taking place is as if created for admiring nature and the peaceful and complex balance of flora and fauna in a riverine landscape and floodplain forest. The abandoned town of Bukevje, , displaced because of frequent floods of the Drava, is also located nearby. From Repaš Bridge follow the river bike trail further near the Sekuline lakes, where you can rest your eyes by observing the beautiful Drava, and relax in the peaceful surrounding of those untouched lakes, the only sound the song of frogs. Along the route that follows you can enjoy a pleasant ride among a patchwork pattern of traditional small-scale agricultural landscape between Molve Grede and Novo Virje. Once there, you can turn from the main route again and discover Drava accesses and surroundings of the Mura Drava Regional Park.A real paradise for anglers and people looking for peaceful rest or a picnic place by lake is lake Drnić, also located in Novo Virje.
After riding through the village of Severovci you will reach Đurđevac, the end point and goal of your daily Stage S7 of the Amazon of Europe Bike Trail. To celebrate the day, you can taste dished of the local cuisine and taste great local wines.
