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.
From Brezoi it runs 540 km to Brezoi; allow about 11 h 31 of riding. The stops in between: Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude, Feldioara - Cetățeaua, Codrul secular Șinca and Hoghiz - La Cetate. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 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 47 km this is Transfăgărășan, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Olt is the only river that cuts straight through the Carpathians, and the Romans knew it. Between Copaceni and Brezoi, the Olt runs in a deep gorge through the mountains between Transylvania and Wallachia, and the Roman army, after conquering Dacia in 106 AD, built a line of forts and watchtowers along its western bank to guard this key corridor. The Limes Alutanus, as it is known, ran from the Danube northwards along the river, and sites such as Praetorium and Arutela were links in the chain. Some are little more than grassy ramparts today, but they sit on strategic hills with views along the valley.
Read the complete Copăceni - Praetorium I / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Copăceni - Praetorium I / Cetate is where the day begins. Next is Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude.
The Olt does something improbable south of Sibiu. Instead of going around the Carpathians, it cuts straight through them, carving a deep, winding gorge between the Făgăraș and Lotru ranges, and for two thousand years that gorge has been one of the great gateways between Transylvania and Wallachia. At its northern mouth, near the village of Boița, the Romans built a fort they called Caput Stenarum, the head of the narrows, to guard the entrance.
Read the complete Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Feldioara - Cetățeaua.
The Făgăraș mountains are the highest wall in Romania, and from the Olt valley at Ucea they rise like a grey and white curtain across the southern sky, with Moldoveanu and Negoiu, the country's two highest peaks, hidden somewhere in the ridge. Down in the valley, near the villages of Ucea de Jos and Feldioara, the Romans had a fort at a site called Cetățeaua, guarding the Olt route that formed part of the frontier system of Dacia. The remains, earthworks and fragments in the fields, are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Feldioara - Cetățeaua write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Feldioara - Cetățeaua. Next is Codrul secular Șinca.
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, about halfway. Next is Hoghiz - La Cetate.
Where the Olt river bends around the Perșani mountains, between the Saxon villages of southern Transylvania and the Székely country to the east, the land rises into wooded hills, and near the village of Hoghiz, on a terrace above the river, lies an archaeological site known simply as La Cetate, the fortress. The Romans guarded this stretch of the Olt with forts, part of the defensive system of their province of Dacia, and the name hints at an old fortified place that once watched over the valley.
Read the complete Hoghiz - La Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hoghiz - La Cetate sits at 186 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Codrul secular Șinca comes up about 359 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Feldioara - Cetățeaua write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 461 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua. Next is back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude, late in the day. Next is Copăceni - Praetorium I / Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Copăceni - Praetorium I / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 540 km.
Copăceni - Praetorium I / Cetate → Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude → Feldioara - Cetățeaua is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Feldioara - Cetățeaua → Codrul secular Șinca is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Codrul secular Șinca → Hoghiz - La Cetate is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hoghiz - La Cetate → back through Codrul secular Șinca is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Codrul secular Șinca → back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua is 102 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua → back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude → Copăceni - Praetorium I / Cetate is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.