A hundred wells: that is the meaning of Centum Putea, the Latin name of a Roman fort in the hills of the Banat, near the village of Surducu Mare in Caraș-Severin county. It was one of the forts that guarded the road from the Danube to the heart of Roman Dacia after the emperor Trajan conquered the region in the early second century, and it is part of the line of sites listed by UNESCO as the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Dacia. Little survives above ground, just traces of earthworks in the fields, but the name alone conjures a picture of a well-watered camp on the road north.
The Banat is a region with a complex history, ruled in turn by Hungarians, Ottomans and Habsburgs, and settled by Romanians, Serbs, Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks and others. In the eighteenth century, the Habsburgs brought in settlers from all over their empire to farm the land, and the villages still reflect that mix, with churches of different faiths, and sometimes different languages spoken in neighbouring villages. Many of the German communities left after the Second World War or emigrated in later decades, leaving empty houses behind.
The landscape around Surducu Mare is a mix of low hills, fields, orchards and woods, between the Banat plain to the west and the mountains to the east. The roads are mostly quiet, with gentle bends and short climbs, and they link small villages and towns. The surface can be rough, with potholes and patched sections, and some roads are unpaved. Further south, the Danube Gorges, where the river cuts through the Carpathians at the Iron Gates, offer some of the most spectacular riding in Romania, with the road running along the river beneath towering cliffs.
Bocșa, about fifteen kilometres away, is the nearest town of any size, with fuel and shops, and Reșița, an old industrial city with a long tradition of iron and steel making, is a little further east. Timișoara, the largest city in the Banat, is a lively, cosmopolitan place, and the starting point of the revolution of 1989 that brought down the communist regime. The summers are hot and dry, so carry plenty of water, and the winters can be cold, with snow in the hills.