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.
636 km from Geoagiu to Geoagiu, about 19 h 54 of riding. It goes by way of Târsa - Platoul Târsa, Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Bănița - Jigoru Mare and Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 68 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Warm water has drawn people to this corner of the Mureș valley for at least two thousand years. Below the hill of Dealul Urie, near the spa town of Geoagiu-Băi, the Romans built Germisara, a fort on the hill at Cigmău and a bath settlement around the hot springs a few kilometres away, and soldiers and settlers from across the empire came to soak their aches in the thermal pools. Excavations in one of the old spring basins brought up a remarkable hoard of votive offerings, including small gold plaques dedicated to the healing gods and the nymphs, thrown into the water by grateful bathers. The ruins of the fort on Dealul Urie are low and grassy, but the setting, above a broad river plain with mountains on both sides, makes the climb worthwhile.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is where the day begins. Next is Târsa - Platoul Târsa.
Târsa sits on a high plateau in the Șureanu mountains, in the same ring of hills that sheltered the Dacian kingdom's heart. The platoul, the plateau, is open grassland and forest edge at roughly a thousand metres or higher, the sort of place where shepherds still bring flocks in summer and the wind carries the sound of bells.
Read the complete Târsa - Platoul Târsa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Târsa - Platoul Târsa comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
High above the Sebeș and Cugir valleys, where the Șureanu foothills fold into long grassy shoulders, the Romans kept watch over the southern approaches to their province of Dacia. The name on the map, Muncelu-Lăutaorea, belongs to the ridge country above Pianu de Jos, and it is one of the many small frontier points that archaeologists have tied to the Roman defensive system here. Do not expect walls to lean on. What survives on these hilltops is usually a faint platform, a ditch you notice only when the light is low, and a view that explains everything about why a sentry was posted there.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 125 km into the recorded legs you reach Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. 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 Voineasa - Crac-Găuri.
North of the Jiu Valley, the land rises steeply into the Șureanu and Parâng mountains, a wild region of high ridges, deep valleys, spruce forests and alpine meadows. Crac-Găuri lies up in this high country, linked by name to the old routes that crossed the mountains in Roman times, when Dacia was a province and soldiers watched the passes between the Transylvanian basin and the south. Little is visible today, and the remoteness is half the attraction: this is mountain land, where shepherds bring their flocks to high pastures in summer and the forest stretches for miles.
Read the complete Voineasa - Crac-Găuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri sits at 149 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bănița - Jigoru Mare write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare comes up about 389 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 510 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. Next is back through Târsa - Platoul Târsa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Târsa - Platoul Târsa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Târsa - Platoul Târsa, late in the day. Next is Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 636 km.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie → Târsa - Platoul Târsa is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Târsa - Platoul Târsa → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Bănița - Jigoru Mare is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bănița - Jigoru Mare → Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 121 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → back through Târsa - Platoul Târsa is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Târsa - Platoul Târsa → Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.