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.
From Boşorod it runs 549 km to Boşorod; allow about 9 h 29 of riding. The stops in between: Bănița - Jigoru Mare, Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Village of Câlnic and back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 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 comes up about 81 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 183 km into the recorded legs you reach Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. Next is Village of Câlnic.
Câlnic, a small village south of Sebeș in Alba county, is home to one of the strangest fortresses among the Saxon sites of Transylvania. Unlike most of its neighbours, it began not as a fortified church but as a noble residence. In the thirteenth century a local count built a stone keep here, surrounded by walls and a moat. Later the villagers bought it, added a chapel and storerooms, and turned it into a peasant refuge, where families could shelter from raids behind the walls. The result, still ringed by water on parts of its perimeter, is part of the Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania World Heritage site.
Read the complete Village of Câlnic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Village of Câlnic, about halfway. 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.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea sits at 366 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 471 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Costești - Grădiște closes the day.
Costești - Grădiște → Bănița - Jigoru Mare is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bănița - Jigoru Mare → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 102 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Village of Câlnic is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Câlnic → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare is 102 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bănița - Jigoru Mare → Costești - Grădiște is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.