Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii and Hoghiz - La Cetate

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii

   Salt has shaped this part of Transylvania as much as any river. The hills of the eastern Transylvanian basin sit on enormous salt deposits, and the springs and lakes are often salty, as in Sărățeni, whose name says it all, and where a small salt museum explains the history. Ideciu de Sus, a village in the Mureș valley above Reghin, lies in this country, and the hill of Dealul Custurii nearby carried a Roman watchtower on the eastern frontier of Dacia, included in UNESCO's inscription of 2024. The Romans valued salt highly, and controlling the deposits was one reason they kept a watchful eye on these hills.

   Read the complete Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii is where the day begins. Next is Inlăceni - Cetate.

2. 2. Inlăceni - Cetate

   Székely Land, in the eastern part of Transylvania, is the home of a Hungarian-speaking community whose ancestors were placed here in the Middle Ages to guard the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Hungary, and the same job had been done a thousand years earlier by the Romans. Near the village of Inlăceni, in the hills of Harghita county, stand the remains of a Roman fort, one of the eastern bastions of Dacia, facing the Carpathians and the passes beyond. The stone walls, gates and corner towers can still be traced in a meadow on a hilltop, and the setting, with forests all around and the mountains on the horizon, is one of the most beautiful of all the sites on the Dacian frontier listed by UNESCO.

   Read the complete Inlăceni - Cetate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Inlăceni - Cetate comes up about 95 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hoghiz - La Cetate.

3. 3. Hoghiz - La Cetate

   Where the Olt river bends around the Perșani mountains, between the Saxon villages of southern Transylvania and the Székely country to the east, the land rises into wooded hills, and near the village of Hoghiz, on a terrace above the river, lies an archaeological site known simply as La Cetate, the fortress. The Romans guarded this stretch of the Olt with forts, part of the defensive system of their province of Dacia, and the name hints at an old fortified place that once watched over the valley.

   Read the complete Hoghiz - La Cetate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 198 km into the recorded legs you reach Hoghiz - La Cetate. Next is back through Inlăceni - Cetate.

4. 4. back through Inlăceni - Cetate

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Inlăceni - Cetate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Inlăceni - Cetate, late in the day. Next is Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii.

5. 5. Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii. That is the ride.