CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
A 358 km round trip from Budeşti - roughly 8 h 46 in the saddle. The stops in between: Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, Maramarosh, Chornohora and back through Maramarosh. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Romania into Ukraine - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 27 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Budești is one of the old villages of the Cosău valley in Maramureș, the far northern corner of Romania, where traditional life has survived longer than almost anywhere else in Europe. Its wooden church of St Nicholas, built in the seventeenth century, is a masterpiece of the local carpentry tradition: a dark timber body with a tall, steep shingled roof and a slender spire that seems to pierce the sky. Inside, the walls are covered with painted scenes from the Bible, and among the church's treasures is a coat of chain mail said to have belonged to Pintea the Brave, a legendary outlaw hero of the region. The church is one of eight in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Saint Nicholas is where the day begins. Next is Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.
Ieud is a long village strung along a side valley of the Iza river in Maramureș, in Romania's far north, and it has not one but two wooden churches. The one on the hill, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, is one of the eight Wooden Churches of Maramureș listed by UNESCO, and it is one of the oldest, with a tall, slender bell tower and a double roof of wooden shingles that reaches almost to the ground. Inside, the walls are covered with eighteenth-century paintings on wood and cloth, with scenes from the Last Judgement in which the damned are dressed in the clothes of the local enemies of the time. The church is also known for the Ieud Codex, a manuscript found here, one of the oldest texts written in the Romanian language.
Read the complete Church of the Nativity of the Virgin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Nativity of the Virgin comes up 33 km in. Next is Maramarosh.
On the map, the line between Romania and Ukraine runs along the Tisza river here, and on either side of it the Carpathians rise in forested ridges. Maramarosh is the old name for the whole region, Maramureș to Romanians, and it is also the name of a protected forest within the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve on the Ukrainian side, one component of the World Heritage inscription for ancient and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe. These are forests where beech trees have grown undisturbed since the last ice age, with giants several hundred years old and a richness of life that has vanished from most of Europe.
Read the complete Maramarosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
65 km in you reach Maramarosh. Next is Chornohora.
Chornohora, the Black Mountain, is the highest range of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a long ridge of rounded summits above the forests on the border between the Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Its highest peak, Hoverla, rises to 2,061 metres, the highest point in Ukraine, and on summer weekends it can be busy with hikers. Along the ridge to the southeast stands Pip Ivan, crowned by the ruins of an astronomical and meteorological observatory built by Poland in the 1930s, when this was the border with Czechoslovakia. Locals call it the White Elephant, and seeing it loom out of the mist is unforgettable.
Read the complete Chornohora write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chornohora, about halfway. Next is back through Maramarosh.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maramarosh write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Maramarosh sits at 130 km, about halfway. Next is back through Church of the Nativity of the Virgin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Nativity of the Virgin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of the Nativity of the Virgin comes up 163 km in. Next is Church of Saint Nicholas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Saint Nicholas closes the day.
Church of Saint Nicholas → Church of the Nativity of the Virgin is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Nativity of the Virgin → Maramarosh is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maramarosh → Chornohora is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chornohora → back through Maramarosh is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maramarosh → back through Church of the Nativity of the Virgin is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of the Nativity of the Virgin → Church of Saint Nicholas is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.