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 Poiana Blenchii it runs 293 km to Poiana Blenchii; allow about 6 h 17 of riding. It goes by way of Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal, Salva - Dealul Dumbravă, Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 and Brâncovenești - Castel. The line favours views over speed.
In northern Transylvania, where the Someș river winds through low hills between Dej and Beclean, the Roman Empire once ran out of land and patience. The province of Dacia, conquered by Trajan in the early second century, had a long and complicated frontier, and in 2024 parts of it were added to the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Muncel–Cărămidă is one of those components, a small military site above the valley near Poiana Blenchii, part of a network of watchtowers and forts that guarded the northern edge of the province. The big fort of Porolissum, near Zalău to the west, with its reconstructed gate, gives you a sense of what the bigger garrisons looked like.
Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Muncel - Cărămidă is where the day begins. Next is Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal.
A Roman cavalry regiment kept its horses near the village of Ilișua, in the hills of northern Transylvania, for most of the time the province of Dacia existed. The fort, which modern archaeologists link with the ancient name Arcobara, was a large stone camp on the northern frontier, and its remains have been excavated over the years. It is part of the frontier of Roman Dacia listed by UNESCO in 2024. Today the site is a field with low walls and grassy mounds, and the neighbouring villages of Uriu, Cristeștii Ciceului and Braniștea go about their business around it.
Read the complete Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Salva - Dealul Dumbravă.
The Someșul Mare valley around Năsăud was a frontier long before the Habsburgs made it one again. The Romans built watchtowers on the hills here to guard the northern edge of Dacia, and Salva - Dealul Dumbravă, the hill of the oak grove near the village of Salva, is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of the Dacian frontier in 2024. Sixteen centuries later, the Habsburg empire turned the region into a military border district, and the Năsăud border regiment, made up of local Romanian peasants, guarded the Carpathian passes in return for privileges and education.
Read the complete Salva - Dealul Dumbravă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Salva - Dealul Dumbravă. Next is Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1.
Bram Stoker sent Jonathan Harker to Bistritz, and the town of Bistrița, just a few kilometres from here, has never quite escaped the vampire. In the novel, Harker spends a night at the Golden Krone hotel before setting off towards the Borgo Pass and Count Dracula's castle, and today the town has a hotel of that name and the pass a hotel built to look like a castle. The real history is more interesting. Bistrița was one of the seven Saxon cities that gave Transylvania its German name, Siebenbürgen, a rich trading town with a big Gothic church, arcaded merchants' houses and a ring of walls, much of which has been lost.
Read the complete Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1, about halfway. Next is Brâncovenești - Castel.
Upstream from Reghin, where the Mureș leaves the mountains and widens into the Transylvanian hill country, the village of Brâncovenești stands beside a castle with round corner towers and a long, plain facade overlooking the river. Known in Hungarian as Marosvécs, it was rebuilt several times over the centuries, and in the twentieth century it belonged to the Kemény family. Between the two world wars, Baron János Kemény opened its doors to a circle of Hungarian writers from Transylvania, the Helikon group, who met here every summer to read, debate and plan their literary work. Those gatherings made a remote country house one of the liveliest literary addresses in the region for almost two decades.
Read the complete Brâncovenești - Castel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Brâncovenești - Castel sits at 149 km, about halfway. Next is back through Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 comes up about 193 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salva - Dealul Dumbravă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 226 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă. Next is back through Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal, late in the day. Next is Muncel - Cărămidă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 293 km.
Muncel - Cărămidă → Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal → Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 → Brâncovenești - Castel is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Brâncovenești - Castel → back through Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 → back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → back through Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal → Muncel - Cărămidă is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.