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 411 km round trip from Orăştioara de Sus - roughly 7 h 06 in the saddle. The stops in between: Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Village of Câlnic, Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 and back through Village of Câlnic. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 27 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Sarmizegetusa Regia was the capital of the Dacian kings, built high in the Orăștie mountains in the first century BC and the first century AD, and it is one of the most atmospheric ruins in Europe. A fortress of stone blocks, a sacred precinct of circular and rectangular temples, and terraces for houses and workshops were laid out on a series of platforms among beech forest, at an altitude of around 1,200 metres. The sanctuary is the star, with rings of stone bases and wooden posts, and a large circular platform of andesite stones that may have worked as a calendar or a place for ritual. Cut stones and finely made tiles show Greek and Roman influence.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia is where the day begins. 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.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Village of Câlnic. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Village of Câlnic.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Village of Câlnic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Village of Câlnic sits at 273 km, 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 comes up about 352 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia closes the day.
Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Village of Câlnic is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Câlnic → Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 → back through Village of Câlnic is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Village of Câlnic → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.