Why this ride
From Batoş it runs 287 km to Batoş; allow about 6 h 03 of riding. On the way it passes Sărățel - Cetate 1, Vătava - Cetățele, Livezile - Poderei and Zagra - Dealul Lupului. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Monor - Dealul Braniște and Zagra - Dealul Lupului
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 287 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 03
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Monor - Dealul Braniște
This is the Transylvanian Plain at its northern edge, a land of soft hills rather than mountains, and Dealul Braniște is one of the rounded rises between the villages of Monor and Batoș in Mureș and Bistrița-Năsăud country. Braniște usually means a protected wood or reserved pasture, and the hill still carries patches of oak among the fields. From the top the view runs out over a rumpled carpet of meadows, orchards and strip fields, with the Călimani mountains a blue line far to the east.
Read the complete Monor - Dealul Braniște write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monor - Dealul Braniște is where the day begins. Next is Sărățel - Cetate 1.
2. Sărățel - Cetate 1
The name Sărățel means the little salty place, and this corner of Bistrița-Năsăud has salt underground: springs of brine rise here and there in the hills, and for centuries people used them for cooking, curing meat and treating animals. Salt was one of the reasons the Romans wanted Dacia, along with gold, and on a hill near the village they placed a fort, Cetate, meaning the citadel, at the north-eastern corner of their province. Behind it lay the valley of the Șieu and the road towards the interior; in front, the hills where the free Dacians lived. The site is now part of the Roman frontier of Dacia on the World Heritage list, though, like most of these places, it is visible mainly as an outline of banks and ditches.
Read the complete Sărățel - Cetate 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sărățel - Cetate 1 comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vătava - Cetățele.
3. Vătava - Cetățele
For about a century and a half, the Roman province of Dacia was a wedge of empire pushed north of the Danube, and its eastern edge ran along the curve of the Carpathians through what is now central Romania. In 2024, UNESCO added the frontiers of the Roman Empire in Dacia to its list, a long chain of forts, watchtowers and earthworks. Vătava, in the upper Mureș valley, is one of the sites, with traces of a Roman fortification on a hill called Cetățele, the little fortresses. Not much is visible to the casual eye: earthworks, a few stones, the outline of a position chosen for its view along the valley.
Read the complete Vătava - Cetățele write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Vătava - Cetățele. Next is Livezile - Poderei.
4. Livezile - Poderei
Leave Bistriţa eastwards on the DN17 and within minutes you are in Livezile, a long village strung out along the valley of the Bistriţa river where the Transylvanian hills start to bunch up towards the Eastern Carpathians. Poderei is the name of a hillside here where the Romans kept watch over the northern edge of their province of Dacia, and the site is one of the many small components of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listed in Romania in 2024. There is nothing to visit in the sense of ruins; what you get is the hill, the view up the valley and the knowledge that legionaries stared at the same ridges.
Read the complete Livezile - Poderei write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Livezile - Poderei, about halfway. Next is Zagra - Dealul Lupului.
5. Zagra - Dealul Lupului
Zagra is the last farming village before the land begins to climb in earnest toward the Rodna mountains, the highest range in the Eastern Carpathians north of the Prislop pass. Pietrosul Rodnei, at about 2,300 metres, is the summit, and the whole massif is protected as a national park and biosphere reserve, with glacial lakes, rocky ridges and alpine meadows that stay snowy into June. From the Dealul Lupului, the Wolf Hill, you look across a patchwork of hayfields toward those peaks, which look closer than they are.
Read the complete Zagra - Dealul Lupului write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Zagra - Dealul Lupului sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Livezile - Poderei.
6. back through Livezile - Poderei
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Livezile - Poderei write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Livezile - Poderei comes up about 182 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vătava - Cetățele.
7. back through Vătava - Cetățele
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vătava - Cetățele write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 224 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vătava - Cetățele. Next is back through Sărățel - Cetate 1.
8. back through Sărățel - Cetate 1
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sărățel - Cetate 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Sărățel - Cetate 1, late in the day. Next is Monor - Dealul Braniște.
9. Monor - Dealul Braniște
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monor - Dealul Braniște write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 287 km.
Leg by leg
Monor - Dealul Braniște to Sărățel - Cetate 1
Monor - Dealul Braniște → Sărățel - Cetate 1 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sărățel - Cetate 1 to Vătava - Cetățele
Sărățel - Cetate 1 → Vătava - Cetățele is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vătava - Cetățele to Livezile - Poderei
Vătava - Cetățele → Livezile - Poderei is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Livezile - Poderei to Zagra - Dealul Lupului
Livezile - Poderei → Zagra - Dealul Lupului is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zagra - Dealul Lupului to back through Livezile - Poderei
Zagra - Dealul Lupului → back through Livezile - Poderei is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Livezile - Poderei to back through Vătava - Cetățele
back through Livezile - Poderei → back through Vătava - Cetățele is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vătava - Cetățele to back through Sărățel - Cetate 1
back through Vătava - Cetățele → back through Sărățel - Cetate 1 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sărățel - Cetate 1 to Monor - Dealul Braniște
back through Sărățel - Cetate 1 → Monor - Dealul Braniște is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.