CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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A 585 km round trip from Călimăneşti - roughly 14 h 05 in the saddle. On the way it passes Monastery of Horezu, Voineasa - Crac-Găuri, Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor and Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 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 52 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Olt river cuts through the Carpathians in a gorge a few kilometres from Păuşa, one of the few natural gateways between Transylvania and the southern plains, and the Romans knew its value. After Trajan conquered Dacia in AD 106, the frontier of the new province ran along the Olt, a line known as the Limes Alutanus, and a chain of watchtowers and small forts guarded the river, the roads and the passes against raiders from the lands to the east. Turnul lui Teofil, Teofil's Tower, is one of those lookouts, standing on a height over the valley, in a place chosen so that a signal fire or a trumpet call could be passed on from tower to tower.
Read the complete Păușa - Turnul lui Teofil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Păușa - Turnul lui Teofil is where the day begins. Next is Monastery of Horezu.
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 comes up 45 km in. Next is Voineasa - Crac-Găuri.
North of the Jiu Valley, the land rises steeply into the Șureanu and Parâng mountains, a wild region of high ridges, deep valleys, spruce forests and alpine meadows. Crac-Găuri lies up in this high country, linked by name to the old routes that crossed the mountains in Roman times, when Dacia was a province and soldiers watched the passes between the Transylvanian basin and the south. Little is visible today, and the remoteness is half the attraction: this is mountain land, where shepherds bring their flocks to high pastures in summer and the forest stretches for miles.
Read the complete Voineasa - Crac-Găuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
89 km in you reach Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. Next is Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor.
Petroșani is the capital of the Jiu valley, a long trench between the Retezat, Vâlcan, Parâng and Șureanu mountains in south-western Romania, and for most of the twentieth century it was the heart of the country's hard-coal industry. The hills around the town, including Dealul Botanilor, look down on a landscape of mining towns, pit heads and miners' housing, with the high mountains rising all around.
Read the complete Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor, about halfway. Next is Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie.
Warm water has drawn people to this corner of the Mureș valley for at least two thousand years. Below the hill of Dealul Urie, near the spa town of Geoagiu-Băi, the Romans built Germisara, a fort on the hill at Cigmău and a bath settlement around the hot springs a few kilometres away, and soldiers and settlers from across the empire came to soak their aches in the thermal pools. Excavations in one of the old spring basins brought up a remarkable hoard of votive offerings, including small gold plaques dedicated to the healing gods and the nymphs, thrown into the water by grateful bathers. The ruins of the fort on Dealul Urie are low and grassy, but the setting, above a broad river plain with mountains on both sides, makes the climb worthwhile.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie sits at 179 km, about halfway. Next is back through Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor comes up 223 km in. Next is back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Voineasa - Crac-Găuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
268 km in you reach back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. Next is back through 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.
back through Monastery of Horezu, late in the day. Next is Păușa - Turnul lui Teofil.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Păușa - Turnul lui Teofil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 585 km.
Păușa - Turnul lui Teofil → Monastery of Horezu is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastery of Horezu → Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor → Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie → back through Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor → back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → back through Monastery of Horezu is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastery of Horezu → Păușa - Turnul lui Teofil is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.