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.
481 km from Groşi to Groşi, about 10 h 18 of riding. It goes by way of Church of the Holy Paraskeva, Kuziy - Trybushany, Church of Saint Nicholas and Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci. It crosses from Romania into Ukraine - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 37 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Just outside Baia Mare, where the city gives way to the hills, the countryside of northern Romania begins to show the tradition that made this region famous: churches built entirely of wood, with steep shingled roofs and tall, needle-like spires. Many of them are dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, and this dedication is common across the region, from small village churches to some of the eight Wooden Churches of Maramureș listed by UNESCO in 1999. Surdești and Plopiș, both within a short ride of Baia Mare, are among the finest of those, with spires that seem far too tall for the buildings beneath them.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Archangels is where the day begins. Next is Church of the Holy Paraskeva.
In 1780 a painter named Radu Munteanu covered the inside of the wooden church at Desești with scenes that still shock and delight: a Last Judgment in which sinners are marched off to a hell full of grinning devils, alongside saints, prophets and lively village figures. The church, dedicated to the Holy Paraskeva and built in 1770 from oak logs, rises above the village with a tall, slender tower and a steep double roof of shingles. It is one of the eight wooden churches of Maramureș inscribed by UNESCO in 1999, and its paintings are among the best preserved of them all.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Paraskeva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of the Holy Paraskeva comes up 38 km in. Next is Kuziy - Trybushany.
The river Tisza runs fast and green out of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and for many kilometres it forms the border between Romania and Ukraine. On the Ukrainian bank, the forests of Kuziy and Trybushany are among the primeval beech woods protected in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and listed by UNESCO as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. From the Romanian side, around Valea Vișeului, you look across the river at steep, wooded slopes where the trees have grown and died without interference for centuries.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
75 km in you reach Kuziy - Trybushany. Next is Church of Saint Nicholas.
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, about halfway. Next is Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci.
The Țibleș massif rises like a dark green wall between Maramureș and the Bistrița country of northern Romania, an old volcanic range topped by the Țibleș peak at around eighteen hundred metres. On its southern flanks, above the village of Groșii Țibleșului, lie the forests of Preluci, part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe that UNESCO has protected as one sprawling, multi-country site. These are woods left largely to themselves, where old beeches grow huge, fall, rot and feed the next generation without a forester in sight.
Read the complete Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Church of Saint Nicholas comes up 188 km in. Next is back through Kuziy - Trybushany.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
226 km in you reach back through Kuziy - Trybushany. Next is back through Church of the Holy Paraskeva.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Paraskeva write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of the Holy Paraskeva, late in the day. Next is Church of the Holy Archangels.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of the Holy Archangels write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 481 km.
Church of the Holy Archangels → Church of the Holy Paraskeva is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of the Holy Paraskeva → Kuziy - Trybushany is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kuziy - Trybushany → Church of Saint Nicholas is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Saint Nicholas → Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Groșii Țibleșului - Preluci → back through Church of Saint Nicholas is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Saint Nicholas → back through Kuziy - Trybushany is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kuziy - Trybushany → back through Church of the Holy Paraskeva is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of the Holy Paraskeva → Church of the Holy Archangels is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.