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.
A 414 km round trip from Șinca Nouă - roughly 10 h 44 in the saddle. On the way it passes Moieciu - Drumul Carului, Voinești - Măilătoaia, Rădăcinești - Cetate and Stolniceni - Buridava Romană. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 73 km this is Transfagarasan Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Codru is an old Romanian word for a deep forest, and the Codrul Secular Șinca, the ancient forest of Șinca, is exactly that: a stand of old-growth beech and fir on the northern slopes of the Făgăraș mountains in Brașov county, where trees have grown, died and fallen for centuries without being cut. It is part of the UNESCO listing of the ancient and primeval beech forests of Europe, a chain of protected forests across many countries that together tell the story of how beech spread across the continent after the last ice age. Walking among trees that are hundreds of years old, with fallen trunks covered in moss and fungi and the canopy closing high above, is a humbling experience.
Read the complete Codrul secular Șinca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Codrul secular Șinca is where the day begins. Next is Moieciu - Drumul Carului.
Between Bran and Rucăr, the road climbs over the saddle that separates the Bucegi mountains from Piatra Craiului, through a landscape of high meadows, hay barns, scattered farms and limestone peaks. The name Drumul Carului, the cart road, recalls the old route across this pass, which has linked Transylvania and Wallachia for centuries, and archaeologists have recorded a Roman-era site here, part of the network of frontier and road posts in Dacia. Fundata, at the top, is one of the highest villages in Romania, at around 1,350 metres, and the scattered houses of Moieciu, Peștera and Șirnea spread across the hills around it.
Read the complete Moieciu - Drumul Carului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Moieciu - Drumul Carului comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Voinești - Măilătoaia.
The Rucăr-Bran corridor is one of the oldest passages through the Carpathians, and at its southern end, in the hills around Câmpulung Muscel, the Romans built a frontier line to guard it. The Limes Transalutanus, the frontier east of the Olt, ran north through this area, and small forts and watchtowers like the one at Voinești-Măilătoaia watched the valleys and the approaches to the pass. The sites are now low earthworks in fields and forest edges, and they belong to the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Voinești - Măilătoaia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 98 km into the recorded legs you reach Voinești - Măilătoaia. Next is Rădăcinești - Cetate.
Rădăcinești is a quiet village belonging to Berislăvești, tucked into the hills on the east side of the Olt valley in Vâlcea county. The word cetate on the label means fortress, and like many such names in Romania it points to an old fortified height above the village, the kind of place where earthworks and a few stones are all that is left of people who once watched this valley closely. You come for the setting rather than for ruins you can walk through.
Read the complete Rădăcinești - Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rădăcinești - Cetate, about halfway. Next is Stolniceni - Buridava Romană.
South of Râmnicu Vâlcea the Olt river leaves the mountains and broadens across a valley of orchards and villages, and on the terraces above it at Stolniceni lie the remains of Buridava, a Roman military settlement whose name the Romans borrowed from an older Dacian centre nearby. It sat on the Limes Alutanus, the frontier road along the Olt that guarded the eastern edge of Roman Dacia, and soldiers stationed here left inscriptions, bricks stamped with unit marks and the foundations of baths. The site is part of the Dacian frontier listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Stolniceni - Buridava Romană write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană sits at 174 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rădăcinești - Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rădăcinești - Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rădăcinești - Cetate comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Voinești - Măilătoaia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Voinești - Măilătoaia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 318 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Voinești - Măilătoaia. Next is back through Moieciu - Drumul Carului.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Moieciu - Drumul Carului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Moieciu - Drumul Carului, late in the day. Next is Codrul secular Șinca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Codrul secular Șinca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 414 km.
Codrul secular Șinca → Moieciu - Drumul Carului is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Moieciu - Drumul Carului → Voinești - Măilătoaia is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voinești - Măilătoaia → Rădăcinești - Cetate is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Rădăcinești - Cetate → Stolniceni - Buridava Romană is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → back through Rădăcinești - Cetate is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rădăcinești - Cetate → back through Voinești - Măilătoaia is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Voinești - Măilătoaia → back through Moieciu - Drumul Carului is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Moieciu - Drumul Carului → Codrul secular Șinca is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.