The Romanian word vallum is a Latin leftover, and it means a rampart. Across the plain north of the Danube, in Teleorman county, a line of low earthworks stretches over the fields, and local people call it Troianul, Trajan's ditch, though no one is sure whether Trajan had anything to do with it. Folk memory has also attached the name of Novac, a legendary hero, to the same banks, and archaeologists suggest the line may have formed part of a Roman or late Roman defence of the Wallachian Plain, though the dating remains debated. What you will find on the ground is subtle: a long, shallow hump in a wheat field, a line of poplars following an old ditch.
The setting is the real reward. This is the broad, flat Danubian plain, with villages like Baneasa, Salcia and Tudor Vladimirescu spaced out along straight roads lined with walnut trees. Houses are painted in bright colours, gates are carved or wrought iron, and storks build huge nests on the telephone poles, which in summer are full of noisy chicks. Sunflowers fill the horizon in July, and in September the maize is harvested and the air smells of dust and dry stalks. Time seems to move at the speed of a tractor.
The riding is straightforward, with flat, long roads, fast in places but often broken by potholes, and the occasional horse-drawn cart. Wind can be strong, and summer temperatures are often high, so plan for early starts and long breaks at midday. Spring, when the fields are bright green and the poppies are in flower, is the nicest time. In winter, the plain is bleak and cold, with fog and sometimes ice.
Peretu, fourteen kilometres away, is the larger town on the map, and Alexandria, the county capital, has everything you might need. Carry water, and accept the offer of coffee, which is usually strong, sweet and served in tiny cups.