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.
From Ighiu it runs 439 km to Ighiu; allow about 15 h 09 of riding. On the way it passes Village of Câlnic, Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia and back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. 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 41 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
There is a hill above Ighiu called Măgulici, and from its slopes you look straight across the Mureș valley toward Alba Iulia, the old Roman Apulum. That view is the whole point. Apulum was the base of the Thirteenth Legion and the largest Roman centre in Dacia, and the hills around it were dotted with watch posts and small sites that kept an eye on the roads in and out. The frontier lists name a site on Dealul Măgulici, and while there is little to see on the ground beyond the lie of the land, standing there makes the Roman geography readable.
Read the complete Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici is where the day begins. 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.
Village of Câlnic comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. Next is Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia.
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, 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 sits at 128 km, 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 comes up about 399 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici closes the day.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici → Village of Câlnic is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Câlnic → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grădiștea de Munte - Sarmizegetusa Regia → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → back through Village of Câlnic is 94 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Village of Câlnic → Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.