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 Săsciori it runs 443 km to Săsciori; allow about 7 h 39 of riding. It goes by way of Cugir - Bătrâna, Costesti -Blidaru, Bănița - Jigoru Mare and back through Costesti -Blidaru. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The Dacians liked their fortresses high, hidden and hard to reach, which is why the Roman legions of Trajan took two bloody wars at the start of the second century to conquer them. Căpâlna stands on a steep wooded hill above the Sebeș valley, a Dacian citadel with stone walls built in the distinctive murus dacicus technique, blocks of cut stone tied together with timber beams, and a tower that served as the last refuge. It is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains listed by UNESCO in 1999, along with the capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and it is one of the easier ones to reach, with a path climbing through the forest from the valley road.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Capâlna is where the day begins. Next is Cugir - Bătrâna.
South of the town of Cugir, the land rises into the Șureanu mountains, a sprawling range of beech and spruce forests, high meadows and rounded summits in the heart of the Southern Carpathians. This is the country of the Dacians, the people who ruled much of present-day Romania before the Roman conquest in the early second century. Their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, and a ring of mountain fortresses lie in the Orăștie mountains to the west, and they are listed by UNESCO as the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains. Bătrâna, on the high ground above the Cugir valley, belongs to the network of ancient sites scattered across these hills, where Dacians and Romans watched each other across the ridges.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cugir - Bătrâna comes up about 83 km into the recorded legs. Next is Costesti -Blidaru.
Blidaru is the Dacian fortress that makes you rethink what you know about the people Rome conquered. It stands on a steep hill above the village of Costești, in the Orăștie mountains of Transylvania, and its walls are built of precisely cut limestone blocks, laid in the Dacian style called murus dacicus, with timber ties inside to absorb shocks. The builders learned from Greek masonry, and the result is a fortress with strong corner towers and a small square citadel, built on a terrace carved out of the mountain. It was one of the defences guarding Sarmizegetusa Regia, the Dacian capital, a few valleys away, and the group of Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie mountains was listed by UNESCO in 1999.
Read the complete Costesti -Blidaru write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 153 km into the recorded legs you reach Costesti -Blidaru. Next is Bănița - Jigoru Mare.
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, about halfway. Next is back through Costesti -Blidaru.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Costesti -Blidaru write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Costesti -Blidaru sits at 295 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cugir - Bătrâna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna comes up about 363 km into the recorded legs. Next is Capâlna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Capâlna closes the day.
Capâlna → Cugir - Bătrâna is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cugir - Bătrâna → Costesti -Blidaru is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costesti -Blidaru → Bănița - Jigoru Mare is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bănița - Jigoru Mare → back through Costesti -Blidaru is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Costesti -Blidaru → back through Cugir - Bătrâna is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna → Capâlna is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.