Cheile Nerei-Beușnița and Vărădia - Arcidava / Pustă
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
212 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 53
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
212 km from Sasca Montană to Sasca Montană, about 3 h 53 of riding. It goes by way of Pojejena - Șitarnița, Vărădia - Arcidava / Pustă and back through Pojejena - Șitarnița. It crosses from Romania into Serbia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cheile Nerei-Beușnița
The water at Ochiul Beiului, the Bey's Eye, is such an intense turquoise that it looks dyed, and the legend says it formed from the tears of a Turkish nobleman mourning a lost love. It is one of the jewels of the Cheile Nerei-Beușnița National Park, in the mountains of Banat in south-western Romania, where the Nera river has cut a deep gorge through limestone over about twenty kilometres. The park's ancient beech forests are part of the UNESCO listing of primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe, and the waterfalls, caves and karst springs make it one of the most beautiful corners of the country.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cheile Nerei-Beușnița is where the day begins. Next is Pojejena - Șitarnița.
2. Pojejena - Șitarnița
The Danube here is wide and slow, and across the water you look straight into Serbia. Pojejena is a village on the Romanian bank in the Danube gorge region known as the Clisura Dunării, and nearby Şitarniţa is the site of a Roman fort, one of the stations that guarded the river frontier. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing in Romania, inscribed in 2024. The Danube was the backbone of Rome's northern defences for centuries, and forts like this one lined its banks.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pojejena - Șitarnița comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vărădia - Arcidava / Pustă.
3. Vărădia - Arcidava / Pustă
Down in the southwestern corner of Romania, where the Banat plain gives way to the first hills of the Carpathians, the village of Vărădia sits on the edge of a gentle valley that opens toward Serbia. Here, at a place called Pustă, lie the remains of the Roman fort of Arcidava, one of the first stations on the road the Romans built from the Danube crossing at Lederata north into Dacia. Trajan's troops passed this way during the conquest, and the fort guarded the route for the century and a half that followed. Excavations have revealed the outline of the fortifications, and the site is now part of the UNESCO frontier listing.