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.
553 km from Petrila to Petrila, about 9 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Luncani-Piatra Rosie, Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, Village of Câlnic and back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 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.
Luncani-Piatra Rosie comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
High above the Sebeș and Cugir valleys, where the Șureanu foothills fold into long grassy shoulders, the Romans kept watch over the southern approaches to their province of Dacia. The name on the map, Muncelu-Lăutaorea, belongs to the ridge country above Pianu de Jos, and it is one of the many small frontier points that archaeologists have tied to the Roman defensive system here. Do not expect walls to lean on. What survives on these hilltops is usually a faint platform, a ditch you notice only when the light is low, and a view that explains everything about why a sentry was posted there.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 182 km into the recorded legs you reach Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea. Next is Village of Câlnic.
Câlnic, a small village south of Sebeș in Alba county, is home to one of the strangest fortresses among the Saxon sites of Transylvania. Unlike most of its neighbours, it began not as a fortified church but as a noble residence. In the thirteenth century a local count built a stone keep here, surrounded by walls and a moat. Later the villagers bought it, added a chapel and storerooms, and turned it into a peasant refuge, where families could shelter from raids behind the walls. The result, still ringed by water on parts of its perimeter, is part of the Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania World Heritage site.
Read the complete Village of Câlnic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Village of Câlnic, about halfway. Next is back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea sits at 368 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie comes up about 479 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor closes the day.
Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor → Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Luncani-Piatra Rosie → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 111 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Village of Câlnic is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Câlnic → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie is 114 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Luncani-Piatra Rosie → Petroșani - Dealul Botanilor is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.