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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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 495 km round trip from Sarmizegetusa - roughly 10 h 12 in the saddle. The stops in between: Voislova - Gara CFR, Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie, Izvoarele Nerei and Cheile Nerei-Beușnița. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
After conquering Dacia in AD 106, the emperor Trajan founded a new capital for the province in the Hațeg basin, and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa, borrowing the name of the Dacian royal capital in the Orăștie mountains to the north-east. The city grew into a prosperous centre, with a forum, temples, baths, and an amphitheatre that could seat thousands, and its ruins, partly excavated, lie in fields beside the modern village of Sarmizegetusa. The site has a museum, and you can walk around the forum and the amphitheatre, imagining the gladiatorial games that once filled it.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is where the day begins. Next is Voislova - Gara CFR.
The Bistra valley is a natural corridor, and armies have known it for millennia. Running east from Caransebeș toward the Iron Gate of Transylvania and the Hațeg basin, it was the route by which Trajan's legions advanced on the Dacian heartland in the wars of AD 101 to 106, and later the road that linked Roman forts and towns along the way. Near the village of Voislova, by the railway station, the remains of a Roman site have been identified as counted within the UNESCO serial site of the Dacian frontier, a reminder of how important this valley was to the Roman presence in the province.
Read the complete Voislova - Gara CFR write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Voislova - Gara CFR comes up 41 km in. Next is Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie.
Caput Bubali, the head of the buffalo, is a wonderfully odd Roman name, and it belongs to a station on the road that carried troops and supplies north from the Danube into the heart of Dacia after Trajan's conquest. The hill known as Cetățuie, near the villages of Brebu and Cornuțel in the Banat, holds the earthworks of a fort that guarded this route as it threaded through the hills towards Tibiscum, the important Roman centre near Caransebeș. It is part of the Dacian frontier group listed by UNESCO in 2024, and like much of it, it needs a little imagination and a good eye for ditches and banks.
Read the complete Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
82 km in you reach Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie. Next is Izvoarele Nerei.
High in the Semenic mountains of south-western Romania, in the Banat region, the Nera river is born in a forest of ancient beech trees. The Izvoarele Nerei reserve, the springs of the Nera, protects one of the largest areas of virgin beech forest in Europe, with trees over thirty metres tall and centuries old, untouched by logging. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe.
Read the complete Izvoarele Nerei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izvoarele Nerei, about halfway. Next is Cheile Nerei-Beușnița.
The water at Ochiul Beiului, the Bey's Eye, is such an intense turquoise that it looks dyed, and the legend says it formed from the tears of a Turkish nobleman mourning a lost love. It is one of the jewels of the Cheile Nerei-Beușnița National Park, in the mountains of Banat in south-western Romania, where the Nera river has cut a deep gorge through limestone over about twenty kilometres. The park's ancient beech forests are part of the UNESCO listing of primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe, and the waterfalls, caves and karst springs make it one of the most beautiful corners of the country.
Read the complete Cheile Nerei-Beușnița write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cheile Nerei-Beușnița sits at 164 km, about halfway. Next is back through Izvoarele Nerei.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izvoarele Nerei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Izvoarele Nerei comes up 204 km in. Next is back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
245 km in you reach back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie. Next is back through Voislova - Gara CFR.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Voislova - Gara CFR write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Voislova - Gara CFR, late in the day. Next is Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 495 km.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → Voislova - Gara CFR is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voislova - Gara CFR → Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie → Izvoarele Nerei is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izvoarele Nerei → Cheile Nerei-Beușnița is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cheile Nerei-Beușnița → back through Izvoarele Nerei is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izvoarele Nerei → back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Brebu - Caput Bubali /Cetăţuie → back through Voislova - Gara CFR is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Voislova - Gara CFR → Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.