Teleorman county is flat. It is the heart of the Romanian Plain, an open expanse of black soil that runs from the Carpathian foothills to the Danube, and from the saddle of a motorcycle it looks like a sea of sunflowers, wheat and maize under a very large sky. Traian, a small village a short ride from Turnu Magurele, sits in the middle of it. The label La Cula refers to a cula, the fortified tower house typical of the Balkans, and the name suggests a past with more upheaval than the quiet fields would suggest.
What makes the place interesting to historians is its position. In the second and third centuries AD, the Romans built a second line of defence, the Limes Transalutanus, a chain of earth ramparts, ditches and small forts that ran across the plain east of the Olt, to guard the province of Dacia from raiders across the river. Traces of these earthworks can still be found in the fields, low humps and long lines that look like nothing until you are told what they are. It is a landscape that rewards imagination more than sightseeing.
For riding, expect long, straight roads, light traffic away from the main routes, and sudden bumps where the pavement has settled. Wind is a constant, and in summer the heat comes in waves, often above thirty-five degrees. Dust and slow farm machinery are normal. The best seasons are May and June, when the crops are green, and September, when the fields are golden and the air is clearer. The Danube is not far away, and Turnu Magurele is a pleasant river town, with a view across the water to Bulgaria, where the town of Nikopol was the scene of a famous medieval battle in 1396, in which a crusader army was defeated by the Ottomans.
Poiana and Ciuperceni are small villages with a basic shop at best, while Turnu Magurele, a town of nearly thirty thousand people, has fuel, supermarkets and cafes. Fill the tank there, bring water, and look for the roadside stalls that sell watermelons in late summer, which are some of the sweetest in the country.