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.
A 264 km round trip from Teaca - roughly 5 h 55 in the saddle. It goes by way of Brâncovenești - Castel, Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică, Sărățeni - Casa Sării and back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Sântioana sits in rolling country on the edge of the Transylvanian Plain, in Bistrița-Năsăud county, a gentle landscape of low hills, fields, orchards and scattered woods. The hilltop of Vârful Mortila, above the village, is one of the many archaeological places recorded in this part of Transylvania, a high point that would have made a natural lookout or settlement site for earlier peoples. There is little to see on the surface, but the view from the top gives a fine sense of the landscape, with the Transylvanian hills rolling away in every direction and the mountains rising on the horizon.
Read the complete Sântioana - Vârful Mortila write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sântioana - Vârful Mortila is where the day begins. Next is Brâncovenești - Castel.
Upstream from Reghin, where the Mureș leaves the mountains and widens into the Transylvanian hill country, the village of Brâncovenești stands beside a castle with round corner towers and a long, plain facade overlooking the river. Known in Hungarian as Marosvécs, it was rebuilt several times over the centuries, and in the twentieth century it belonged to the Kemény family. Between the two world wars, Baron János Kemény opened its doors to a circle of Hungarian writers from Transylvania, the Helikon group, who met here every summer to read, debate and plan their literary work. Those gatherings made a remote country house one of the liveliest literary addresses in the region for almost two decades.
Read the complete Brâncovenești - Castel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Brâncovenești - Castel comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică.
Up the Gurghiu valley in Mureș County, the villages still wear wood: carved gates, shingled roofs, little wooden churches and stacks of firewood against every wall. Ibănești is one of the best known of them, a long village strung along the valley where traditional dress, music and crafts have hung on more stubbornly than in most of Transylvania. On a hill nearby, Cetățuia Mică, the little citadel, marks a point on the eastern frontier of Roman Dacia, where a chain of small forts and watchtowers looked toward the volcanic Gurghiu mountains and the lands beyond. These eastern posts are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024, though on the ground they are grassy earthworks rather than walls.
Read the complete Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică. Next is Sărățeni - Casa Sării.
Salt has shaped this corner of Transylvania for thousands of years. Beneath the hills of the Sovata and Praid area lies a huge salt dome, and in places it reaches the surface, creating salt cliffs, salty springs and lakes. Sărățeni, a village in the Târnava Mică valley, takes its name from the salt, and Casa Sării, the salt house, is the local name for the spot marked here. The Romans valued this salt as much as Dacian gold, and the eastern frontier of their province ran along these hills, with a fort at Sărățeni among the posts that watched the valleys and, no doubt, the salt routes.
Read the complete Sărățeni - Casa Sării write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sărățeni - Casa Sării, about halfway. Next is back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică sits at 113 km, about halfway. Next is back through Brâncovenești - Castel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brâncovenești - Castel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Brâncovenești - Castel comes up about 225 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sântioana - Vârful Mortila.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sântioana - Vârful Mortila write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sântioana - Vârful Mortila closes the day.
Sântioana - Vârful Mortila → Brâncovenești - Castel is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Brâncovenești - Castel → Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică → Sărățeni - Casa Sării is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sărățeni - Casa Sării → back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică → back through Brâncovenești - Castel is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Brâncovenești - Castel → Sântioana - Vârful Mortila is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.