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.
243 km from Rucăr to Rucăr, about 5 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Câmpulung - Jidova 1, Rădăcinești - Cetate, Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate and back through Rădăcinești - Cetate. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 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 about 64 km this is Transfagarasan Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rucăr sits right where the Dâmbovița comes out of the mountains, a long village of wooden gates and tin roofs strung along the valley floor at the southern foot of the Rucăr–Bran corridor. Behind it the land climbs fast: Piatra Craiului's limestone ridge to the north-west, the rounded bulk of Leaota and the Bucegi to the east, and between them the saddle that has carried traffic between Wallachia and Transylvania for as long as anyone has bothered to write things down.
Read the complete Rucăr - Scărișoara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rucăr - Scărișoara is where the day begins. Next is Câmpulung - Jidova 1.
Câmpulung Muscel lies at the foot of the Carpathians in northern Argeș county, and it claims the title of the first capital of Wallachia. Tradition credits its founding as a princely seat to the legendary Negru Vodă in the thirteenth century, and the old princely court and the Negru Vodă monastery in the town centre recall those early days of the Romanian principality. The town spreads along the valley of the Râul Târgului, with the mountains of Iezer and Piatra Craiului rising steeply to the north.
Read the complete Câmpulung - Jidova 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Câmpulung - Jidova 1 comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rădăcinești - Cetate.
Rădăcinești is a quiet village belonging to Berislăvești, tucked into the hills on the east side of the Olt valley in Vâlcea county. The word cetate on the label means fortress, and like many such names in Romania it points to an old fortified height above the village, the kind of place where earthworks and a few stones are all that is left of people who once watched this valley closely. You come for the setting rather than for ruins you can walk through.
Read the complete Rădăcinești - Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Rădăcinești - Cetate. Next is Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate.
Here the Olt does something that rivers are not supposed to do: it cuts straight through the Carpathians. Between Sibiu and Râmnicu Vâlcea the river runs through a gorge that the Romans knew well, and Racovița lies in its southern stretch, where steep wooded slopes close in on both sides. The Romans built forts along it as part of the Limes Alutanus, and the name Praetorium on our list is one of those, a small fort that guarded the road along the water. Not far away, Caput Stenarum, near Boița, held the pass at the northern end of the gorge.
Read the complete Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate, about halfway. Next is back through Rădăcinești - Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rădăcinești - Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rădăcinești - Cetate sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Câmpulung - Jidova 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Câmpulung - Jidova 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Câmpulung - Jidova 1 comes up about 212 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rucăr - Scărișoara.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rucăr - Scărișoara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rucăr - Scărișoara closes the day.
Rucăr - Scărișoara → Câmpulung - Jidova 1 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Câmpulung - Jidova 1 → Rădăcinești - Cetate is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rădăcinești - Cetate → Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Racovița - Praetorium II / Cetate → back through Rădăcinești - Cetate is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rădăcinești - Cetate → back through Câmpulung - Jidova 1 is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Câmpulung - Jidova 1 → Rucăr - Scărișoara is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.