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.
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.
A 709 km round trip from Petrila - roughly 21 h 08 in the saddle. On the way it passes Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie, Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic and Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP. 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.
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 Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
High above the Sebeș and Cugir valleys, where the Șureanu foothills fold into long grassy shoulders, the Romans kept watch over the southern approaches to their province of Dacia. The name on the map, Muncelu-Lăutaorea, belongs to the ridge country above Pianu de Jos, and it is one of the many small frontier points that archaeologists have tied to the Roman defensive system here. Do not expect walls to lean on. What survives on these hilltops is usually a faint platform, a ditch you notice only when the light is low, and a view that explains everything about why a sentry was posted there.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea comes up about 120 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie.
Warm water has drawn people to this corner of the Mureș valley for at least two thousand years. Below the hill of Dealul Urie, near the spa town of Geoagiu-Băi, the Romans built Germisara, a fort on the hill at Cigmău and a bath settlement around the hot springs a few kilometres away, and soldiers and settlers from across the empire came to soak their aches in the thermal pools. Excavations in one of the old spring basins brought up a remarkable hoard of votive offerings, including small gold plaques dedicated to the healing gods and the nymphs, thrown into the water by grateful bathers. The ruins of the fort on Dealul Urie are low and grassy, but the setting, above a broad river plain with mountains on both sides, makes the climb worthwhile.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 178 km into the recorded legs you reach Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie. Next is Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic.
In the Apuseni mountains of western Romania, gold has shaped the land and its people for two thousand years. The Romans came for it after conquering Dacia, organising the mining from a centre at Ampelum, today the town of Zlatna, whose name comes from the Slavic word for gold. Trâmpoiele, on the high ground near Almașu Mare, is one of the many small sites connected to that Roman presence, where mining, settlement and watch posts dotted the hills. A little further north, the mining landscape of Roșia Montană, with its Roman galleries cut deep into the rock, was listed by UNESCO in 2021 and gives the clearest idea of how the ancient gold was won.
Read the complete Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic, about halfway. Next is Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP.
In the Mureș valley near Ocna Mureș, the village of Războieni-Cetate takes the second half of its name, cetate, fortress, from the Roman fort that once stood here, guarding the road and the river in central Dacia. The fort was a base for a cavalry unit, and its remains, close to the farm buildings of the communist era collective, the CAP, whose stables give the site its odd label, are part of the World Heritage listing of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Dacia. Little is visible above ground, but the outline of the fort can be traced in the fields.
Read the complete Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP sits at 204 km, about halfway. Next is back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic comes up about 458 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 531 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie. Next is back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, 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 709 km.
Bănița - Jigoru Mare → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie → Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic → Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP is 135 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP → back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic → back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Bănița - Jigoru Mare is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.