Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort and Mârțești - Cetate
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
223 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 07
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
223 km from Gostavăţu to Gostavăţu, about 5 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor, Afrimești - Urluieni, Mârțești - Cetate and back through Afrimești - Urluieni. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort
Slăveni is farm country, and the fort here is the sort of ruin you have to meet halfway. "La Cetate" simply means "at the fortress", the name locals gave to a rise in the fields long before anyone excavated it, and what remains of the Roman auxiliary fort is mostly a matter of banks, ditches and the shape of the ground rather than standing walls. If you expect a Hadrian's Wall photograph you will be disappointed; if you like imagining a few hundred soldiers watching a very flat horizon, you will be fine.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort is where the day begins. Next is Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor.
2. Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor
Out on the flat Romanian plain east of the Olt river, the village of Crâmpoia sits among endless fields of wheat, maize and sunflowers, and its name has a place in Roman history. A Roman earthen fort near the village stood on the Limes Transalutanus, the frontier line that the Romans built east of the Olt in the early third century, running from the Danube northward toward the Carpathians, a long earthen rampart with forts and watchtowers. The local name Reduta Tătarilor, the Tatars' redoubt, reflects a common habit in Romania of attributing old earthworks to the Tatars or other invaders, long after the Romans were forgotten. The site is part of the UNESCO-listed frontier of Dacia.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor comes up about 48 km into the recorded legs. Next is Afrimești - Urluieni.
3. Afrimești - Urluieni
Flat. That is the first impression of this part of southern Romania, in Argeș county, where the land stretches away towards the Danube in wide fields of maize and sunflowers, broken only by lines of trees and small villages. But across this plain, in the second century AD, the Romans built a frontier: the Limes Transalutanus, a line of earthworks and forts running north to south east of the Olt river, protecting the province of Dacia. At Urluieni, near the village of Afrimești, stood one of its forts.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Afrimești - Urluieni. Next is Mârțești - Cetate.
4. Mârțești - Cetate
South of the Carpathians, where the Wallachian plain starts to lift into hills, there is a quiet stretch of the Argeș county, and this point lies near Lunca Corbului, in a landscape of low ridges, orchards and wide fields. The name Cetate simply means fortress or citadel in Romanian, and the label suggests a place where an old defensive site was recorded, whether Roman or older.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort closes the day.
Leg by leg
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort to Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort → Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor to Afrimești - Urluieni
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor → Afrimești - Urluieni is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Afrimești - Urluieni to Mârțești - Cetate
Afrimești - Urluieni → Mârțești - Cetate is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mârțești - Cetate to back through Afrimești - Urluieni
Mârțești - Cetate → back through Afrimești - Urluieni is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Afrimești - Urluieni to back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor
back through Afrimești - Urluieni → back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor to Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor → Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.