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 553 km round trip from Horezu - roughly 13 h 19 in the saddle. On the way it passes Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari, Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude, Feldioara - Cetățeaua and Codrul secular Șinca. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Transfăgărășan, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Constantin Brâncoveanu, prince of Wallachia at the end of the seventeenth century, was a wealthy, cultured ruler who built churches, palaces and monasteries across his principality, and Horezu was his masterpiece. Founded in 1690, the monastery sits in a quiet valley in the foothills of the Căpățânii mountains, surrounded by walls, with a church at the centre of a courtyard lined with arcaded cells. It is the finest example of the Brâncovenesc style, a blend of Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque, with carved stone, painted interiors and elegant porches, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1993. In 1714, Brâncoveanu and his four sons were executed by the Ottomans in Istanbul; the Romanian Orthodox Church later canonised them as martyrs.
Read the complete Monastery of Horezu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monastery of Horezu is where the day begins. Next is Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari.
The Olt is the river that cuts through the Carpathians, and wherever a river does that, an army will want to sit beside it. At Păușa, near Călimănești, the Romans built a small fort called Arutela to guard the road through the Olt valley, part of the defensive line that protected their province of Dacia after Trajan's conquest at the start of the second century. The fort's remains lie by the river, partly lost to floods and later works, and are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude.
The Olt does something improbable south of Sibiu. Instead of going around the Carpathians, it cuts straight through them, carving a deep, winding gorge between the Făgăraș and Lotru ranges, and for two thousand years that gorge has been one of the great gateways between Transylvania and Wallachia. At its northern mouth, near the village of Boița, the Romans built a fort they called Caput Stenarum, the head of the narrows, to guard the entrance.
Read the complete Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 129 km into the recorded legs you reach Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude. Next is Feldioara - Cetățeaua.
The Făgăraș mountains are the highest wall in Romania, and from the Olt valley at Ucea they rise like a grey and white curtain across the southern sky, with Moldoveanu and Negoiu, the country's two highest peaks, hidden somewhere in the ridge. Down in the valley, near the villages of Ucea de Jos and Feldioara, the Romans had a fort at a site called Cetățeaua, guarding the Olt route that formed part of the frontier system of Dacia. The remains, earthworks and fragments in the fields, are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Feldioara - Cetățeaua write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Feldioara - Cetățeaua, about halfway. Next is Codrul secular Șinca.
Codru is an old Romanian word for a deep forest, and the Codrul Secular Șinca, the ancient forest of Șinca, is exactly that: a stand of old-growth beech and fir on the northern slopes of the Făgăraș mountains in Brașov county, where trees have grown, died and fallen for centuries without being cut. It is part of the UNESCO listing of the ancient and primeval beech forests of Europe, a chain of protected forests across many countries that together tell the story of how beech spread across the continent after the last ice age. Walking among trees that are hundreds of years old, with fallen trunks covered in moss and fungi and the canopy closing high above, is a humbling experience.
Read the complete Codrul secular Șinca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Codrul secular Șinca sits at 191 km, about halfway. Next is back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Feldioara - Cetățeaua write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua comes up about 378 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 425 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude. Next is back through Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari, late in the day. Next is Monastery of Horezu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastery of Horezu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 553 km.
Monastery of Horezu → Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari → Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude → Feldioara - Cetățeaua is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Feldioara - Cetățeaua → Codrul secular Șinca is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Codrul secular Șinca → back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua is 102 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Feldioara - Cetățeaua → back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Boița - Caput Stenarum / În Rude → back through Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari → Monastery of Horezu is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.