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 420 km round trip from Veţel - roughly 9 h 02 in the saddle. The stops in between: Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor, Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic, Roșia Montană Mining Landscape and Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The Mureș flows west across Transylvania towards Hungary, and near the village of Vețel, just west of Deva, the Romans built one of the most important forts in their province of Dacia. Micia guarded the river and the road along the valley, the main route between Transylvania and the Pannonian plain, and around the fort grew a large civil settlement with baths, temples and an amphitheatre. Excavations have revealed much of it, though part of the site lies under a power station built in the twentieth century.
Read the complete Vețel - Micia / Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vețel - Micia / Grădiște is where the day begins. Next is Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor.
The Romans never met a hot spring they did not want to bathe in, and at Germisara, now Geoagiu-Băi, they found warm water bubbling from the ground in a valley at the edge of the Apuseni mountains. They built baths, carved pools into the rock and dedicated offerings to the nymphs and to the healing gods, including small gold plaques found by archaeologists in one of the pools. The site, called Dâmbul Romanilor, the Romans' hillock, sits on the World Heritage list as part of the Dacian frontier, together with the military fort of Germisara in the Mureș valley below. Today, Geoagiu-Băi is again a spa resort, with modern pools fed by the same warm springs.
Read the complete Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic.
In the Apuseni mountains of western Romania, gold has shaped the land and its people for two thousand years. The Romans came for it after conquering Dacia, organising the mining from a centre at Ampelum, today the town of Zlatna, whose name comes from the Slavic word for gold. Trâmpoiele, on the high ground near Almașu Mare, is one of the many small sites connected to that Roman presence, where mining, settlement and watch posts dotted the hills. A little further north, the mining landscape of Roșia Montană, with its Roman galleries cut deep into the rock, was listed by UNESCO in 2021 and gives the clearest idea of how the ancient gold was won.
Read the complete Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 97 km into the recorded legs you reach Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic. Next is Roșia Montană Mining Landscape.
Gold has been mined at Roșia Montană, in the Apuseni mountains of western Romania, for over two thousand years. The Romans, who called the place Alburnus Maior, dug an extensive network of galleries into the mountains to extract the gold, and some of these galleries survive, along with wax tablets found in the mines, recording contracts and daily life. In 2021, after years of controversy, the mining landscape of Roșia Montană was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Roșia Montană Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Roșia Montană Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici.
There is a hill above Ighiu called Măgulici, and from its slopes you look straight across the Mureș valley toward Alba Iulia, the old Roman Apulum. That view is the whole point. Apulum was the base of the Thirteenth Legion and the largest Roman centre in Dacia, and the hills around it were dotted with watch posts and small sites that kept an eye on the roads in and out. The frontier lists name a site on Dealul Măgulici, and while there is little to see on the ground beyond the lie of the land, standing there makes the Roman geography readable.
Read the complete Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici sits at 140 km, about halfway. Next is back through Roșia Montană Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roșia Montană Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roșia Montană Mining Landscape comes up about 277 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 325 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic. Next is back through Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor, late in the day. Next is Vețel - Micia / Grădiște.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vețel - Micia / Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 420 km.
Vețel - Micia / Grădiște → Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor → Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic → Roșia Montană Mining Landscape is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roșia Montană Mining Landscape → Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici → back through Roșia Montană Mining Landscape is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roșia Montană Mining Landscape → back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic → back through Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor → Vețel - Micia / Grădiște is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.