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.
401 km from Lechinţa to Lechinţa, about 8 h 35 of riding. On the way it passes Monor - Dealul Braniște, Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică, Păuleni - Dealul Silaș and Village of Dârjiu. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The name Sărățel means the little salty place, and this corner of Bistrița-Năsăud has salt underground: springs of brine rise here and there in the hills, and for centuries people used them for cooking, curing meat and treating animals. Salt was one of the reasons the Romans wanted Dacia, along with gold, and on a hill near the village they placed a fort, Cetate, meaning the citadel, at the north-eastern corner of their province. Behind it lay the valley of the Șieu and the road towards the interior; in front, the hills where the free Dacians lived. The site is now part of the Roman frontier of Dacia on the World Heritage list, though, like most of these places, it is visible mainly as an outline of banks and ditches.
Read the complete Sărățel - Cetate 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sărățel - Cetate 1 is where the day begins. Next is Monor - Dealul Braniște.
This is the Transylvanian Plain at its northern edge, a land of soft hills rather than mountains, and Dealul Braniște is one of the rounded rises between the villages of Monor and Batoș in Mureș and Bistrița-Năsăud country. Braniște usually means a protected wood or reserved pasture, and the hill still carries patches of oak among the fields. From the top the view runs out over a rumpled carpet of meadows, orchards and strip fields, with the Călimani mountains a blue line far to the east.
Read the complete Monor - Dealul Braniște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monor - Dealul Braniște comes up about 31 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 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică. Next is Păuleni - Dealul Silaș.
Corund is a village where almost every house seems to sell pottery. Stalls line the main road through this Székely community in Harghita county, piled high with plates, jugs and bowls in white, blue, green and brown, painted with flowers and birds. Pottery has been made here for centuries, using local clay, and the craft is still alive, though much of what is sold today is made for tourists. Păuleni and the hill called Dealul Silaș lie nearby, an archaeological site among many in this land of rolling hills and forested ridges, with little to see on the ground.
Read the complete Păuleni - Dealul Silaș write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Păuleni - Dealul Silaș, about halfway. Next is Village of Dârjiu.
Dârjiu is a Székely village of around eleven hundred people in Harghita county, and at its heart stands one of the fortified churches that UNESCO lists among the Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania. Most of those villages are Saxon and Lutheran; Dârjiu is Hungarian-speaking and Unitarian, which makes it something of an odd one out and all the more interesting. A ring of thick walls and towers encloses the church, built so that villagers could shelter from raiders, and the tradition of storing smoked bacon and grain in the fortress towers lasted here long into modern times.
Read the complete Village of Dârjiu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Village of Dârjiu sits at 158 km, about halfway. Next is back through Păuleni - Dealul Silaș.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Păuleni - Dealul Silaș write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Păuleni - Dealul Silaș comes up about 240 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 326 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică. Next is back through Monor - Dealul Braniște.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monor - Dealul Braniște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monor - Dealul Braniște, late in the day. Next is Sărățel - Cetate 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sărățel - Cetate 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 401 km.
Sărățel - Cetate 1 → Monor - Dealul Braniște is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monor - Dealul Braniște → Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică → Păuleni - Dealul Silaș is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Păuleni - Dealul Silaș → Village of Dârjiu is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Dârjiu → back through Păuleni - Dealul Silaș is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Păuleni - Dealul Silaș → back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică → back through Monor - Dealul Braniște is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monor - Dealul Braniște → Sărățel - Cetate 1 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.