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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Petrila it runs 452 km to Petrila; allow about 7 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of Boșorod, Banita, Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 and Costești - Grădiște. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
High on a limestone outcrop above the village of Bănița, in the hills of south-western Transylvania, stand the ruins of a Dacian fortress. Bănița is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains listed by UNESCO in 1999, part of the defensive system built around the capital of the Dacian kingdom, Sarmizegetusa Regia, in the first century BC and the first century AD. The kingdom's last great ruler, Decebalus, held out against Rome in two hard wars before Trajan's legions finally conquered Dacia in 106, an event recorded in stone on Trajan's Column in Rome.
Read the complete Bănița - Jigoru Mare write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bănița - Jigoru Mare is where the day begins. Next is Boșorod.
South of the Mures and west of the Retezat massif, the Hateg country is an oddly self-contained basin, ringed by mountains and full of old stories. Bosorod lies on its eastern side, near the town of Pui, in a landscape of meadows, small farms and wooded slopes that rise gradually toward the Orastie Mountains. This is where the Dacians built their strongholds, and the fortress at Banita, which shares the label with Jigoru Mare, is one of six that make up the UNESCO World Heritage listing of the Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains.
Read the complete Boșorod write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boșorod comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Banita.
The Dacians, before the Romans conquered them, built a ring of fortresses in the mountains around their capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and Banița is one of them, perched on a limestone peak, Piatra Cetii, above the village of the same name. It guarded the southern approach to the Dacian heartland, controlling the route from the Jiu valley, and it was taken by the Romans during Trajan's wars at the beginning of the second century. The Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains, including Banița, were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1999.
Read the complete Banita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 113 km into the recorded legs you reach Banita. Next is Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2.
On a hill above the Strei valley near the village of Pui, in south-western Transylvania, faint earthworks mark one of the many small Roman military posts that guarded the province of Dacia after Trajan conquered it in AD 106. The Romans held Dacia for about a hundred and seventy years, and they ringed it with forts, watchtowers and roads; in 2024 a long series of these sites was added to the World Heritage list as the Frontiers of the Roman Empire in Dacia. At Dealul Robului there is nothing grand to see, just the shape of the ground under grass and trees, but the position tells you everything: a clear view down the valley, which was one of the routes into the heart of the province.
Read the complete Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2, about halfway. Next is Costești - Grădiște.
The kings of Dacia put their holy places and their fortresses on the tops of mountains, and the best of them lie in the Orăștie Mountains of Hunedoara county, where six fortresses were built in the first century BC and first century AD to defend the heart of the kingdom. Costești is the entry point. The fortress of Costești-Cetățuie, on a steep hill above the valley of the Orăștioara, and its neighbour Blidaru, stood on limestone ridges with thick walls of carefully dressed stone, murus dacicus, a technique that combined stone facing with timber lacing. The Dacians fought Rome in two wars, in AD 101-102 and 105-106, under their king Decebalus, and the Romans eventually took and destroyed the fortresses, stripping the hills of their defences. UNESCO listed the group in 1999.
Read the complete Costești - Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Costești - Grădiște sits at 226 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 comes up about 286 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Banita.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Banita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 339 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Banita. Next is back through Boșorod.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boșorod write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Boșorod, late in the day. Next is Bănița - Jigoru Mare.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bănița - Jigoru Mare write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 452 km.
Bănița - Jigoru Mare → Boșorod is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boșorod → Banita is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Banița → Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 → Costești - Grădiște is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costești - Grădiște → back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 → back through Banita is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Banita → back through Boșorod is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Boșorod → Bănița - Jigoru Mare is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.