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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 443 km round trip from Petrila - roughly 7 h 40 in the saddle. It goes by way of Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel, Luncani-Piatra Rosie, Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains and Costesti -Blidaru. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel.
Grădiștea de Munte is where the Dacian capital stood, and the hills around it hold the remains of Sarmizegetusa Regia, the mountain city that Decebalus ruled from about AD 87 until the Roman legions broke it in 106. The site lies high in the Șureanu mountains, around twelve hundred metres up, on a series of man-made terraces cut into the slope. The most striking remains are the sacred zone, with circular sanctuaries of stone and wood pillars and a large round altar of andesite, often called the sun disc, which may have served as a calendar or a place of sacrifice. Whatever it was, it is a place with presence, set among dark conifers and mountain meadows.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Luncani-Piatra Rosie.
Piatra Rosie, the Red Rock, is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orastie Mountains and, arguably, the most awkward to reach, which is exactly how its builders wanted it. The fortress stands on a steep hill above the village of Luncani, with its walls stepping up the slope in terraces, built in the characteristic Dacian way, from dressed stone blocks laid with timber beams. It was part of a defensive chain that protected the Dacian capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, which lies higher in the mountains. UNESCO listed the group in 1999.
Read the complete Luncani-Piatra Rosie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach Luncani-Piatra Rosie. Next is Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains.
Two thousand years ago, on a ridge in the Orastie Mountains, a king built a capital whose walls were a puzzle that Roman engineers had to solve with blood. The Dacians were a people of the Carpathians, farmers, shepherds and ironworkers, who under their king Burebista and later Decebalus built a powerful state that frightened Rome. To protect it, they built a ring of stone fortresses on hilltops in these mountains, using a technique called murus dacicus, a wall of dressed stone blocks with a core of rubble and timber ties, which could stand up to attack. The six fortresses, including Sarmizegetusa Regia at the heart, Costesti and Blidaru, Luncani-Piatra Rosie and others, were listed by UNESCO in 1999.
Read the complete Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains, about halfway. Next is Costesti -Blidaru.
Blidaru is the Dacian fortress that makes you rethink what you know about the people Rome conquered. It stands on a steep hill above the village of Costești, in the Orăștie mountains of Transylvania, and its walls are built of precisely cut limestone blocks, laid in the Dacian style called murus dacicus, with timber ties inside to absorb shocks. The builders learned from Greek masonry, and the result is a fortress with strong corner towers and a small square citadel, built on a terrace carved out of the mountain. It was one of the defences guarding Sarmizegetusa Regia, the Dacian capital, a few valleys away, and the group of Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie mountains was listed by UNESCO in 1999.
Read the complete Costesti -Blidaru write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Costesti -Blidaru sits at 222 km, about halfway. Next is back through Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains comes up about 278 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Luncani-Piatra Rosie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 334 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie. Next is back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 443 km.
Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor → Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel → Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Luncani-Piatra Rosie → Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains → Costesti -Blidaru is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costesti -Blidaru → back through Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains → back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie → back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grădiștea de Munte - Muncel → Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.