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 445 km round trip from Gostavăţu - roughly 11 h 02 in the saddle. The stops in between: Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor, Izbășești - Valea Albă, Stolniceni - Buridava Romană and Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort is where the day begins. Next is 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.
Read the complete Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor comes up about 48 km into the recorded legs. Next is Izbășești - Valea Albă.
Between Pitești and Slatina, in the south of Romania, the land falls away from the Carpathian foothills towards the great Danube plain in a series of long, low ridges cut by streams. It is farming country, with fields of maize and sunflowers, orchards, vineyards and small villages strung along the valleys. Izbășești and the valley called Valea Albă, the White Valley, lie in this landscape near the small town of Stolnici, and the site recorded here is one of the many archaeological traces in the area, though there is probably little to see on the ground.
Read the complete Izbășești - Valea Albă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Izbășești - Valea Albă. Next is Stolniceni - Buridava Romană.
South of Râmnicu Vâlcea the Olt river leaves the mountains and broadens across a valley of orchards and villages, and on the terraces above it at Stolniceni lie the remains of Buridava, a Roman military settlement whose name the Romans borrowed from an older Dacian centre nearby. It sat on the Limes Alutanus, the frontier road along the Olt that guarded the eastern edge of Roman Dacia, and soldiers stationed here left inscriptions, bricks stamped with unit marks and the foundations of baths. The site is part of the Dacian frontier listing inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Stolniceni - Buridava Romană write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană, about halfway. Next is Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari.
The Olt is the river that cuts through the Carpathians, and wherever a river does that, an army will want to sit beside it. At Păușa, near Călimănești, the Romans built a small fort called Arutela to guard the road through the Olt valley, part of the defensive line that protected their province of Dacia after Trajan's conquest at the start of the second century. The fort's remains lie by the river, partly lost to floods and later works, and are included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024.
Read the complete Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari sits at 207 km, about halfway. Next is back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stolniceni - Buridava Romană write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană comes up about 260 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Izbășești - Valea Albă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izbășești - Valea Albă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 352 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Izbășești - Valea Albă. Next is back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor, late in the day. Next is Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - auxiliary fort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 445 km.
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 → Izbășești - Valea Albă is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izbășești - Valea Albă → Stolniceni - Buridava Romană is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Păușa - Arutela / Poiana Bivolari → back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stolniceni - Buridava Romană → back through Izbășești - Valea Albă is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Izbășești - Valea Albă → back through Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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.