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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 389 km round trip from Poiana - roughly 7 h 40 in the saddle. The stops in between: Vallum - Troian, Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis, Crâmpoia - Reduta Tătarilor and Izbășești - Valea Albă. It crosses from Bulgaria into Romania - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
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 Vallum - Troian.
The Romanian word vallum is a Latin leftover, and it means a rampart. Across the plain north of the Danube, in Teleorman county, a line of low earthworks stretches over the fields, and local people call it Troianul, Trajan's ditch, though no one is sure whether Trajan had anything to do with it. Folk memory has also attached the name of Novac, a legendary hero, to the same banks, and archaeologists suggest the line may have formed part of a Roman or late Roman defence of the Wallachian Plain, though the dating remains debated. What you will find on the ground is subtle: a long, shallow hump in a wheat field, a line of poplars following an old ditch.
Read the complete Vallum - Troian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vallum - Troian comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis.
The Olt river rises in the Carpathians and runs south through Romania to the Danube, and in Roman times it was a boundary. The frontier here, called the Limes Alutanus after the Roman name for the river, ran along the Olt on its journey through the plains of Oltenia, and forts were placed at intervals to watch for raiders. Slăveni stands on that line, and the site on our list, a fort known as La Cetate, is beside a cemetery where the people who served there were buried. The nearby site of Romula, a Roman city that became a provincial capital, was a short distance away.
Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 101 km into the recorded legs you reach Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis. 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 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.
Izbășești - Valea Albă sits at 170 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 241 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 289 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis. Next is back through Vallum - Troian.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vallum - Troian write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vallum - Troian, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 389 km.
Traian - La Culă → Vallum - Troian is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vallum - Troian → Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis → 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 → 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 → back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Slăveni - La Cetate - necropolis → back through Vallum - Troian is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vallum - Troian → Traian - La Culă is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.