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 173 km round trip from Poiana - roughly 3 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Băneasa - La Cetate, Gresia - La Biserică, Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor and back through Gresia - La Biserică. It crosses from Bulgaria into Romania - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Teleorman county is flat. It is the heart of the Romanian Plain, an open expanse of black soil that runs from the Carpathian foothills to the Danube, and from the saddle of a motorcycle it looks like a sea of sunflowers, wheat and maize under a very large sky. Traian, a small village a short ride from Turnu Magurele, sits in the middle of it. The label La Cula refers to a cula, the fortified tower house typical of the Balkans, and the name suggests a past with more upheaval than the quiet fields would suggest.
Read the complete Traian - La Culă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Traian - La Culă is where the day begins. Next is Băneasa - La Cetate.
Băneasa is Teleorman, and Teleorman is flat. The Wallachian plain here spreads out between the Danube, to the south, and the lower Vedea valley, with big fields, long horizons and the sort of sky that makes motorcyclists look for any rise at all. The label "La Cetate" marks one such rise, where traces of an old fortification are known locally, and the nearby "Traian - La Culă" name hints at the Roman presence that once ran across this part of southern Romania.
Read the complete Băneasa - La Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Băneasa - La Cetate comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gresia - La Biserică.
The Wallachian plain in southern Romania is about as flat as Europe gets: a vast expanse of wheat, maize and sunflower fields stretching to the horizon, broken only by lines of acacia trees, irrigation channels and villages strung along the road. Teleorman county, where Gresia lies, is in the heart of it. Two thousand years ago, this was frontier land. The Romans built a long earthwork rampart with forts and towers running north to south east of the river Olt, known as the Limes Transalutanus, to protect their province of Dacia. Gresia and the sites around it, including Roșiorii de Vede, Crâmpoia and Izbășești, lie along its line. Little survives above ground, and the remains need a trained eye or an archaeologist's map to spot, but the idea of a Roman frontier running through these fields adds depth to a landscape that can seem empty.
Read the complete Gresia - La Biserică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Gresia - La Biserică. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Gresia - La Biserică.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gresia - La Biserică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gresia - La Biserică sits at 123 km, about halfway. Next is back through Băneasa - La Cetate.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Băneasa - La Cetate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Băneasa - La Cetate comes up about 143 km into the recorded legs. Next is Traian - La Culă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Traian - La Culă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Traian - La Culă closes the day.
Traian - La Culă → Băneasa - La Cetate is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Băneasa - La Cetate → Gresia - La Biserică is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gresia - La Biserică → Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor → back through Gresia - La Biserică is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gresia - La Biserică → back through Băneasa - La Cetate is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Băneasa - La Cetate → Traian - La Culă is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.