CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 359 km round trip from Băneasa - roughly 7 h 13 in the saddle. The stops in between: Gresia - La Biserică, Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis, Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor and Izbășești - Valea Albă. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Băneasa is Teleorman, and Teleorman is flat. The Wallachian plain here spreads out between the Danube, to the south, and the lower Vedea valley, with big fields, long horizons and the sort of sky that makes motorcyclists look for any rise at all. The label "La Cetate" marks one such rise, where traces of an old fortification are known locally, and the nearby "Traian - La Culă" name hints at the Roman presence that once ran across this part of southern Romania.
Read the complete Băneasa - La Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Băneasa - La Cetate is where the day begins. Next is Gresia - La Biserică.
The Wallachian plain in southern Romania is about as flat as Europe gets: a vast expanse of wheat, maize and sunflower fields stretching to the horizon, broken only by lines of acacia trees, irrigation channels and villages strung along the road. Teleorman county, where Gresia lies, is in the heart of it. Two thousand years ago, this was frontier land. The Romans built a long earthwork rampart with forts and towers running north to south east of the river Olt, known as the Limes Transalutanus, to protect their province of Dacia. Gresia and the sites around it, including Roșiorii de Vede, Crâmpoia and Izbășești, lie along its line. Little survives above ground, and the remains need a trained eye or an archaeologist's map to spot, but the idea of a Roman frontier running through these fields adds depth to a landscape that can seem empty.
Read the complete Gresia - La Biserică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gresia - La Biserică comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis.
The Olt river rises in the Carpathians and runs south through Romania to the Danube, and in Roman times it was a boundary. The frontier here, called the Limes Alutanus after the Roman name for the river, ran along the Olt on its journey through the plains of Oltenia, and forts were placed at intervals to watch for raiders. Slăveni stands on that line, and the site on our list, a fort known as La Cetate, is beside a cemetery where the people who served there were buried. The nearby site of Romula, a Roman city that became a provincial capital, was a short distance away.
Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis. Next is Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor.
Out on the flat Romanian plain east of the Olt river, the village of Crâmpoia sits among endless fields of wheat, maize and sunflowers, and its name has a place in Roman history. A Roman earthen fort near the village stood on the Limes Transalutanus, the frontier line that the Romans built east of the Olt in the early third century, running from the Danube northward toward the Carpathians, a long earthen rampart with forts and watchtowers. The local name Reduta Tătarilor, the Tatars' redoubt, reflects a common habit in Romania of attributing old earthworks to the Tatars or other invaders, long after the Romans were forgotten. The site is part of the UNESCO-listed frontier of Dacia.
Read the complete Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor, about halfway. Next is Izbășești - Valea Albă.
Between Pitești and Slatina, in the south of Romania, the land falls away from the Carpathian foothills towards the great Danube plain in a series of long, low ridges cut by streams. It is farming country, with fields of maize and sunflowers, orchards, vineyards and small villages strung along the valleys. Izbășești and the valley called Valea Albă, the White Valley, lie in this landscape near the small town of Stolnici, and the site recorded here is one of the many archaeological traces in the area, though there is probably little to see on the ground.
Read the complete Izbășești - Valea Albă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izbășești - Valea Albă sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor comes up about 226 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 274 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis. Next is back through Gresia - La Biserică.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gresia - La Biserică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gresia - La Biserică, late in the day. Next is Băneasa - La Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Băneasa - La Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 359 km.
Băneasa - La Cetate → Gresia - La Biserică is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gresia - La Biserică → Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis → Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor → Izbășești - Valea Albă is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izbășești - Valea Albă → back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor → back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis → back through Gresia - La Biserică is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gresia - La Biserică → Băneasa - La Cetate is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.