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.
412 km from Berzovia to Berzovia, about 7 h 56 of riding. On the way it passes Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie, Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe, Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu and Vețel - Micia / Grădiște. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Only a handful of sentences survive from the Emperor Trajan's own account of his wars against the Dacians, and one of them mentions this place. Quoted by a later grammarian, it reads, in Latin, that from there we advanced to Berzobis, then to Aizi. Berzobis is the village now called Berzovia, in the Banat hills of south-western Romania, and the site of the Roman fort here, where the Fourth Legion Flavia Felix was stationed after the conquest, is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing in Romania inscribed in 2024.
Read the complete Berzovia - Berzobis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Berzovia - Berzobis is where the day begins. Next is Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie.
Caput Bubali, the head of the buffalo, is a wonderfully odd Roman name, and it belongs to a station on the road that carried troops and supplies north from the Danube into the heart of Dacia after Trajan's conquest. The hill known as Cetățuie, near the villages of Brebu and Cornuțel in the Banat, holds the earthworks of a fort that guarded this route as it threaded through the hills towards Tibiscum, the important Roman centre near Caransebeș. It is part of the Dacian frontier group listed by UNESCO in 2024, and like much of it, it needs a little imagination and a good eye for ditches and banks.
Read the complete Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe.
Zăvoi lies in the valley of the Bistra, a river running east to west between the Poiana Ruscă mountains to the north and the Țarcu range to the south, and for most riders it is a waypoint on one of the best roads in western Romania: the old route from Caransebeș in the Banat over the Iron Gate of Transylvania to Hațeg and the Roman capital of Dacia at Sarmizegetusa. The Romans used this corridor too. The road between their fort at Tibiscum, near Caransebeș, and the colony of Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa passed through the valley, and Agnaviae was a station along it, where travellers and couriers stopped to rest. Today little remains above ground, but the line of the valley is unchanged.
Read the complete Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe. 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.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu, about halfway. Next is Vețel - Micia / Grădiște.
The Mureș flows west across Transylvania towards Hungary, and near the village of Vețel, just west of Deva, the Romans built one of the most important forts in their province of Dacia. Micia guarded the river and the road along the valley, the main route between Transylvania and the Pannonian plain, and around the fort grew a large civil settlement with baths, temples and an amphitheatre. Excavations have revealed much of it, though part of the site lies under a power station built in the twentieth century.
Read the complete Vețel - Micia / Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vețel - Micia / Grădiște sits at 186 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu comes up about 283 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 319 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe. Next is back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie, late in the day. Next is Berzovia - Berzobis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Berzovia - Berzobis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 412 km.
Berzovia - Berzobis → Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie → Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe → Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → Vețel - Micia / Grădiște is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vețel - Micia / Grădiște → back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zăvoi - Agnaviae / Balta Neagră-Fânețe → back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie → Berzovia - Berzobis is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.