CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
439 km from Alba Iulia to Alba Iulia, about 14 h 15 of riding. On the way it passes Cugir - Bătrâna, Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu and back through Cugir - Bătrâna. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 67 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Apulum was a metropolis on the Mureș, and today it is mostly under Alba Iulia's streets and fields. In Roman Dacia, which was conquered by Trajan in 106 AD, the legion XIII Gemina was stationed here, and around the camp grew two towns, one for the soldiers' families and traders and a second, grander one that gained the rank of colony. Apulum was the wealthiest city of the province, and probably its capital for a time, thanks in part to the gold mines of the nearby Apuseni Mountains.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Cetate is where the day begins. Next is Cugir - Bătrâna.
South of the town of Cugir, the land rises into the Șureanu mountains, a sprawling range of beech and spruce forests, high meadows and rounded summits in the heart of the Southern Carpathians. This is the country of the Dacians, the people who ruled much of present-day Romania before the Roman conquest in the early second century. Their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, and a ring of mountain fortresses lie in the Orăștie mountains to the west, and they are listed by UNESCO as the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains. Bătrâna, on the high ground above the Cugir valley, belongs to the network of ancient sites scattered across these hills, where Dacians and Romans watched each other across the ridges.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cugir - Bătrâna comes up 68 km in. Next is Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu.
After conquering Dacia in AD 106, the emperor Trajan founded a new capital for the province in the Hațeg basin, and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa, borrowing the name of the Dacian royal capital in the Orăștie mountains to the north-east. The city grew into a prosperous centre, with a forum, temples, baths, and an amphitheatre that could seat thousands, and its ruins, partly excavated, lie in fields beside the modern village of Sarmizegetusa. The site has a museum, and you can walk around the forum and the amphitheatre, imagining the gladiatorial games that once filled it.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
137 km in you reach Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu. Next is back through Cugir - Bătrâna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna, late in the day. Next is Alba Iulia - Apulum / Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Alba Iulia - Apulum / Cetate. That is the ride.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Cetate → Cugir - Bătrâna is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cugir - Bătrâna → Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → back through Cugir - Bătrâna is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna → Alba Iulia - Apulum / Cetate is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.