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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658 km from Pui to Pui, about 21 h 21 of riding. The stops in between: Cugir - Bătrâna, Voineasa - Crac-Găuri, Monastery of Horezu and Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 44 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
On a hill above the Strei valley near the village of Pui, in south-western Transylvania, faint earthworks mark one of the many small Roman military posts that guarded the province of Dacia after Trajan conquered it in AD 106. The Romans held Dacia for about a hundred and seventy years, and they ringed it with forts, watchtowers and roads; in 2024 a long series of these sites was added to the World Heritage list as the Frontiers of the Roman Empire in Dacia. At Dealul Robului there is nothing grand to see, just the shape of the ground under grass and trees, but the position tells you everything: a clear view down the valley, which was one of the routes into the heart of the province.
Read the complete Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 is where the day begins. Next is Cugir - Bătrâna.
South of the town of Cugir, the land rises into the Șureanu mountains, a sprawling range of beech and spruce forests, high meadows and rounded summits in the heart of the Southern Carpathians. This is the country of the Dacians, the people who ruled much of present-day Romania before the Roman conquest in the early second century. Their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, and a ring of mountain fortresses lie in the Orăștie mountains to the west, and they are listed by UNESCO as the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains. Bătrâna, on the high ground above the Cugir valley, belongs to the network of ancient sites scattered across these hills, where Dacians and Romans watched each other across the ridges.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cugir - Bătrâna comes up 41 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.
82 km in you reach Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. 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, about halfway. Next is Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari.
The Olt is the river that cuts through the Carpathians, and wherever a river does that, an army will want to sit beside it. At Păușa, near Călimănești, the Romans built a small fort called Arutela to guard the road through the Olt valley, part of the defensive line that protected their province of Dacia after Trajan's conquest at the start of the second century. The fort's remains lie by the river, partly lost to floods and later works, and are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari sits at 165 km, about halfway. 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 comes up 206 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.
247 km in you reach back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. Next is back through Cugir - Bătrâna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna, late in the day. Next is Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 658 km.
Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 → Cugir - Bătrâna is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cugir - Bătrâna → Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → Monastery of Horezu is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastery of Horezu → Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari → back through Monastery of Horezu is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastery of Horezu → back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → back through Cugir - Bătrâna is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna → Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.