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 Orăştioara de Sus it runs 228 km to Orăştioara de Sus; allow about 3 h 57 of riding. The stops in between: Luncani-Piatra Rosie, Banita and back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
High in the Orastie mountains, at around twelve hundred metres, a ring of stone terraces climbs out of the beech forest, and it was once the heart of an empire. This is Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of the Dacian kingdom, the people who lived in what is now Romania and who fought two bitter wars against the Roman emperor Trajan in 101-102 and 105-106 AD. The site at Gradistea de Munte was a fortress, a religious centre and a town in one, with workshops, houses on artificial terraces, and a sacred precinct with round and rectangular temples marked out by stone bases and by pillars of andesite. Together with five other Dacian fortresses in the same hills, it was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1999.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Dealul Șesului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grădiștea de Munte - Dealul Șesului is where the day begins. Next is Luncani-Piatra Rosie.
Piatra Rosie, the Red Rock, is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orastie Mountains and, arguably, the most awkward to reach, which is exactly how its builders wanted it. The fortress stands on a steep hill above the village of Luncani, with its walls stepping up the slope in terraces, built in the characteristic Dacian way, from dressed stone blocks laid with timber beams. It was part of a defensive chain that protected the Dacian capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, which lies higher in the mountains. UNESCO listed the group in 1999.
Read the complete Luncani-Piatra Rosie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Luncani-Piatra Rosie comes up about 52 km into the recorded legs. Next is Banita.
The Dacians, before the Romans conquered them, built a ring of fortresses in the mountains around their capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and Banița is one of them, perched on a limestone peak, Piatra Cetii, above the village of the same name. It guarded the southern approach to the Dacian heartland, controlling the route from the Jiu valley, and it was taken by the Romans during Trajan's wars at the beginning of the second century. The Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains, including Banița, were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1999.
Read the complete Banita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 115 km into the recorded legs you reach Banita. Next is back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Luncani-Piatra Rosie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie, late in the day. Next is Grădiștea de Munte - Dealul Șesului.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Dealul Șesului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Grădiștea de Munte - Dealul Șesului. That is the ride.
Grădiștea de Munte - Dealul Șesului → Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Luncani-Piatra Rosie → Banita is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Banița → back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie → Grădiștea de Munte - Dealul Șesului is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.