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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 284 km round trip from Boşorod - roughly 4 h 53 in the saddle. On the way it passes Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel, Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor and back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The kings of Dacia put their holy places and their fortresses on the tops of mountains, and the best of them lie in the Orăștie Mountains of Hunedoara county, where six fortresses were built in the first century BC and first century AD to defend the heart of the kingdom. Costești is the entry point. The fortress of Costești-Cetățuie, on a steep hill above the valley of the Orăștioara, and its neighbour Blidaru, stood on limestone ridges with thick walls of carefully dressed stone, murus dacicus, a technique that combined stone facing with timber lacing. The Dacians fought Rome in two wars, in AD 101-102 and 105-106, under their king Decebalus, and the Romans eventually took and destroyed the fortresses, stripping the hills of their defences. UNESCO listed the group in 1999.
Read the complete Costești - Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Costești - Grădiște is where the day begins. Next is Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel.
Grădiștea de Munte is where the Dacian capital stood, and the hills around it hold the remains of Sarmizegetusa Regia, the mountain city that Decebalus ruled from about AD 87 until the Roman legions broke it in 106. The site lies high in the Șureanu mountains, around twelve hundred metres up, on a series of man-made terraces cut into the slope. The most striking remains are the sacred zone, with circular sanctuaries of stone and wood pillars and a large round altar of andesite, often called the sun disc, which may have served as a calendar or a place of sacrifice. Whatever it was, it is a place with presence, set among dark conifers and mountain meadows.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor.
Petroșani is the capital of the Jiu valley, a long trench between the Retezat, Vâlcan, Parâng and Șureanu mountains in south-western Romania, and for most of the twentieth century it was the heart of the country's hard-coal industry. The hills around the town, including Dealul Botanilor, look down on a landscape of mining towns, pit heads and miners' housing, with the high mountains rising all around.
Read the complete Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor. Next is back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel, late in the day. Next is Costești - Grădiște.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Costești - Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Costești - Grădiște. That is the ride.
Costești - Grădiște → Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel → Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor → back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel → Costești - Grădiște is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.