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 184 km round trip from Tălmaciu - roughly 4 h 04 in the saddle. The stops in between: Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate, Rădăcinești - Cetate, Stolniceni - Buridava Romană and back through Rădăcinești - Cetate. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The Olt does something improbable south of Sibiu. Instead of going around the Carpathians, it cuts straight through them, carving a deep, winding gorge between the Făgăraș and Lotru ranges, and for two thousand years that gorge has been one of the great gateways between Transylvania and Wallachia. At its northern mouth, near the village of Boița, the Romans built a fort they called Caput Stenarum, the head of the narrows, to guard the entrance.
Read the complete Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is where the day begins. Next is Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate.
Here the Olt does something that rivers are not supposed to do: it cuts straight through the Carpathians. Between Sibiu and Râmnicu Vâlcea the river runs through a gorge that the Romans knew well, and Racovița lies in its southern stretch, where steep wooded slopes close in on both sides. The Romans built forts along it as part of the Limes Alutanus, and the name Praetorium on our list is one of those, a small fort that guarded the road along the water. Not far away, Caput Stenarum, near Boița, held the pass at the northern end of the gorge.
Read the complete Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rădăcinești - Cetate.
Rădăcinești is a quiet village belonging to Berislăvești, tucked into the hills on the east side of the Olt valley in Vâlcea county. The word cetate on the label means fortress, and like many such names in Romania it points to an old fortified height above the village, the kind of place where earthworks and a few stones are all that is left of people who once watched this valley closely. You come for the setting rather than for ruins you can walk through.
Read the complete Rădăcinești - Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Rădăcinești - Cetate. Next is Stolniceni - Buridava Romană.
South of Râmnicu Vâlcea the Olt river leaves the mountains and broadens across a valley of orchards and villages, and on the terraces above it at Stolniceni lie the remains of Buridava, a Roman military settlement whose name the Romans borrowed from an older Dacian centre nearby. It sat on the Limes Alutanus, the frontier road along the Olt that guarded the eastern edge of Roman Dacia, and soldiers stationed here left inscriptions, bricks stamped with unit marks and the foundations of baths. The site is part of the Dacian frontier listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Stolniceni - Buridava Romană write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană, about halfway. Next is back through Rădăcinești - Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rădăcinești - Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rădăcinești - Cetate sits at 127 km, about halfway. Next is back through Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate comes up about 154 km into the recorded legs. Next is Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude closes the day.
Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude → Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate → Rădăcinești - Cetate is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rădăcinești - Cetate → Stolniceni - Buridava Romană is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → back through Rădăcinești - Cetate is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rădăcinești - Cetate → back through Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate → Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.