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.
494 km from Ucea de Jos to Ucea de Jos, about 11 h 23 of riding. It goes by way of Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude, Titești - Dealul Cazanului, Monastery of Horezu and Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 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.
Feldioara - Cetățeaua 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 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Titești - Dealul Cazanului.
The Olt is one of Romania's great rivers, and where it cuts through the Southern Carpathians, between Brezoi and Calimanesti, it does so in a long, narrow gorge that has been a corridor for armies and traders for two thousand years. Titesti and Perisani lie just off this corridor, in the hill country that rises on its western side, where the road leaves the traffic behind and climbs through orchards, hay meadows and beech woods. Dealul Cazanului, the Cauldron Hill, is one of those names that points at the shape of the land more than any particular monument.
Read the complete Titești - Dealul Cazanului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Titești - Dealul Cazanului. Next is Monastery of Horezu.
Constantin Brâncoveanu, prince of Wallachia at the end of the seventeenth century, was a wealthy, cultured ruler who built churches, palaces and monasteries across his principality, and Horezu was his masterpiece. Founded in 1690, the monastery sits in a quiet valley in the foothills of the Căpățânii mountains, surrounded by walls, with a church at the centre of a courtyard lined with arcaded cells. It is the finest example of the Brâncovenesc style, a blend of Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque, with carved stone, painted interiors and elegant porches, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1993. In 1714, Brâncoveanu and his four sons were executed by the Ottomans in Istanbul; the Romanian Orthodox Church later canonised them as martyrs.
Read the complete Monastery of Horezu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastery of Horezu, about halfway. Next is Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari.
The Olt is the river that cuts through the Carpathians, and wherever a river does that, an army will want to sit beside it. At Păușa, near Călimănești, the Romans built a small fort called Arutela to guard the road through the Olt valley, part of the defensive line that protected their province of Dacia after Trajan's conquest at the start of the second century. The fort's remains lie by the river, partly lost to floods and later works, and are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari sits at 170 km, about halfway. Next is back through Monastery of Horezu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastery of Horezu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monastery of Horezu comes up about 317 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Titești - Dealul Cazanului.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Titești - Dealul Cazanului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 412 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Titești - Dealul Cazanului. 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 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.
The route ends here after 494 km.
Feldioara - Cetățeaua → Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude → Titești - Dealul Cazanului is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Titești - Dealul Cazanului → Monastery of Horezu is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastery of Horezu → Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari → back through Monastery of Horezu is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastery of Horezu → back through Titești - Dealul Cazanului is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Titești - Dealul Cazanului → back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude → Feldioara - Cetățeaua is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.