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.
From Orăştioara de Sus it runs 420 km to Orăştioara de Sus; allow about 10 h 44 of riding. The stops in between: Banita, Voineasa - Crac-Găuri, Monastery of Horezu and back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. 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 about 74 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Sarmizegetusa Regia was the capital of Dacia, a kingdom that once stood between the Carpathians and the Danube, and the ruins lie high in the Orastie Mountains, in the county of Hunedoara. The Dacians were a sophisticated people, with fortified hilltop towns, gold and iron work, and a priesthood. Under their king Decebalus they fought the Roman Empire in two wars, and the emperor Trajan finally conquered the kingdom in 106 AD. The Romans destroyed the capital, but the site survived as a series of terraces cut into a steep mountainside, and it is part of the UNESCO group of Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains, listed in 1999.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sarmizegetusa is where the day begins. Next is Banita.
The Dacians, before the Romans conquered them, built a ring of fortresses in the mountains around their capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and Banița is one of them, perched on a limestone peak, Piatra Cetii, above the village of the same name. It guarded the southern approach to the Dacian heartland, controlling the route from the Jiu valley, and it was taken by the Romans during Trajan's wars at the beginning of the second century. The Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains, including Banița, were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1999.
Read the complete Banita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Banița comes up about 83 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 137 km into the recorded legs 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 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.
back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri sits at 161 km, about halfway. Next is back through Banita.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Banita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Banita comes up about 339 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sarmizegetusa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sarmizegetusa closes the day.
Sarmizegetusa → Banita is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Banița → Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → Monastery of Horezu is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastery of Horezu → back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → back through Banita is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Banita → Sarmizegetusa is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.