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.
A 251 km round trip from Stolnici - roughly 4 h 39 in the saddle. On the way it passes Gresia - La Biserică, Traian - La Culă and back through Gresia - La Biserică. It crosses from Romania into Bulgaria - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Between Pitești and Slatina, in the south of Romania, the land falls away from the Carpathian foothills towards the great Danube plain in a series of long, low ridges cut by streams. It is farming country, with fields of maize and sunflowers, orchards, vineyards and small villages strung along the valleys. Izbășești and the valley called Valea Albă, the White Valley, lie in this landscape near the small town of Stolnici, and the site recorded here is one of the many archaeological traces in the area, though there is probably little to see on the ground.
Read the complete Izbășești - Valea Albă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izbășești - Valea Albă is where the day begins. Next is Gresia - La Biserică.
The Wallachian plain in southern Romania is about as flat as Europe gets: a vast expanse of wheat, maize and sunflower fields stretching to the horizon, broken only by lines of acacia trees, irrigation channels and villages strung along the road. Teleorman county, where Gresia lies, is in the heart of it. Two thousand years ago, this was frontier land. The Romans built a long earthwork rampart with forts and towers running north to south east of the river Olt, known as the Limes Transalutanus, to protect their province of Dacia. Gresia and the sites around it, including Roșiorii de Vede, Crâmpoia and Izbășești, lie along its line. Little survives above ground, and the remains need a trained eye or an archaeologist's map to spot, but the idea of a Roman frontier running through these fields adds depth to a landscape that can seem empty.
Read the complete Gresia - La Biserică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gresia - La Biserică comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. Next is Traian - La Culă.
Teleorman county is flat. It is the heart of the Romanian Plain, an open expanse of black soil that runs from the Carpathian foothills to the Danube, and from the saddle of a motorcycle it looks like a sea of sunflowers, wheat and maize under a very large sky. Traian, a small village a short ride from Turnu Magurele, sits in the middle of it. The label La Cula refers to a cula, the fortified tower house typical of the Balkans, and the name suggests a past with more upheaval than the quiet fields would suggest.
Read the complete Traian - La Culă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Traian - La Culă. Next is back through Gresia - La Biserică.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gresia - La Biserică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gresia - La Biserică, late in the day. Next is Izbășești - Valea Albă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izbășești - Valea Albă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Izbășești - Valea Albă. That is the ride.
Izbășești - Valea Albă → Gresia - La Biserică is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gresia - La Biserică → Traian - La Culă is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Traian - La Culă → back through Gresia - La Biserică is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gresia - La Biserică → Izbășești - Valea Albă is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.