CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
On the way it passes Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1, Village of Valea Viilor and back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 65 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
South of the town of Cugir, the land rises into the Șureanu mountains, a sprawling range of beech and spruce forests, high meadows and rounded summits in the heart of the Southern Carpathians. This is the country of the Dacians, the people who ruled much of present-day Romania before the Roman conquest in the early second century. Their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, and a ring of mountain fortresses lie in the Orăștie mountains to the west, and they are listed by UNESCO as the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains. Bătrâna, on the high ground above the Cugir valley, belongs to the network of ancient sites scattered across these hills, where Dacians and Romans watched each other across the ridges.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cugir - Bătrâna is where the day begins. Next is Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1.
Alba Iulia wears its history in layers, and the bottom layer is Roman. The Legio XIII Gemina, the legion that held the heart of Dacia, was based here for over a century and a half, and around its fortress grew Apulum, one of the largest cities of the province. Excavations inside the modern citadel have revealed parts of the legionary fortress, and a Roman house, a domus, with its foundations, rooms and heating system, has been uncovered nearby, showing how the wealthier inhabitants lived. Together with the rest of the Dacian limes, these remains are now on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 comes up 70 km in. Next is Village of Valea Viilor.
Valea Viilor means Valley of the Vineyards, and the name is honest: the slopes around the village were planted with vines long before anyone thought of mapping them. The Saxons called it Wurmloch, and its fortified church, a tall Gothic hall with a defensive storey built over the choir and a ring wall around it, is one of the seven on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Village of Valea Viilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
139 km in you reach Village of Valea Viilor. Next is back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1, late in the day. Next is Cugir - Bătrâna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cugir - Bătrâna. That is the ride.
Cugir - Bătrâna → Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 → Village of Valea Viilor is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Village of Valea Viilor → back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 → Cugir - Bătrâna is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.