CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 581 km round trip from Veţel - roughly 15 h 42 in the saddle. The stops in between: Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor, Costesti-Cetatuie, Comărnicel II and Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 36 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 36 km in. Next is Costesti-Cetatuie.
The Dacians built their strongholds high in the Orăștie mountains, and the fortress of Costești-Cetățuie was one of the gateways to their heartland. Standing on a steep hill above the valley of the Grădiștea river, it was protected by walls built in the Dacian style, the murus dacicus, with large cut stone blocks bound by timber beams, and by earthen ramparts and palisades. It guarded the road up the valley to Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of King Decebalus, which the Romans captured in the wars of 101 to 106 that turned Dacia into a province. The fortresses of the Orăștie mountains are listed together by UNESCO.
Read the complete Costesti-Cetatuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
72 km in you reach Costesti-Cetatuie. Next is Comărnicel II.
The Retezat range rises to the south, its granite peaks carrying snow into early summer, and the whole area belongs to Hunedoara county, a land of old mining, Dacian history and shepherds who still move flocks through the hills.
Read the complete Comărnicel II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Comărnicel II, about halfway. Next is Voineasa - Crac-Găuri.
North of the Jiu Valley, the land rises steeply into the Șureanu and Parâng mountains, a wild region of high ridges, deep valleys, spruce forests and alpine meadows. Crac-Găuri lies up in this high country, linked by name to the old routes that crossed the mountains in Roman times, when Dacia was a province and soldiers watched the passes between the Transylvanian basin and the south. Little is visible today, and the remoteness is half the attraction: this is mountain land, where shepherds bring their flocks to high pastures in summer and the forest stretches for miles.
Read the complete Voineasa - Crac-Găuri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri sits at 143 km, about halfway. Next is back through Comărnicel II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Comărnicel II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Comărnicel II comes up 179 km in. Next is back through Costesti-Cetatuie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Costesti-Cetatuie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
215 km in you reach back through Costesti-Cetatuie. 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 581 km.
Vețel - Micia / Grădiște → Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor → Costesti-Cetatuie is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Costești-Cetățuie → Comărnicel II is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Comărnicel II → Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → back through Comărnicel II is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Comărnicel II → back through Costesti-Cetatuie is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Costesti-Cetatuie → back through Geoagiu-Băi - Germisara / Dâmbul Romanilor is 36 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 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.