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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Câlnic it runs 354 km to Câlnic; allow about 11 h 47 of riding. On the way it passes Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1, Capâlna, Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea and Comărnicel I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 26 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Câlnic, a small village south of Sebeș in Alba county, is home to one of the strangest fortresses among the Saxon sites of Transylvania. Unlike most of its neighbours, it began not as a fortified church but as a noble residence. In the thirteenth century a local count built a stone keep here, surrounded by walls and a moat. Later the villagers bought it, added a chapel and storerooms, and turned it into a peasant refuge, where families could shelter from raids behind the walls. The result, still ringed by water on parts of its perimeter, is part of the Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania World Heritage site.
Read the complete Village of Câlnic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Village of Câlnic is where the day begins. Next is Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1.
Alba Iulia wears its history in layers, and the bottom layer is Roman. The Legio XIII Gemina, the legion that held the heart of Dacia, was based here for over a century and a half, and around its fortress grew Apulum, one of the largest cities of the province. Excavations inside the modern citadel have revealed parts of the legionary fortress, and a Roman house, a domus, with its foundations, rooms and heating system, has been uncovered nearby, showing how the wealthier inhabitants lived. Together with the rest of the Dacian limes, these remains are now on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 comes up 26 km in. Next is Capâlna.
The Dacians liked their fortresses high, hidden and hard to reach, which is why the Roman legions of Trajan took two bloody wars at the start of the second century to conquer them. Căpâlna stands on a steep wooded hill above the Sebeș valley, a Dacian citadel with stone walls built in the distinctive murus dacicus technique, blocks of cut stone tied together with timber beams, and a tower that served as the last refuge. It is one of the six Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains listed by UNESCO in 1999, along with the capital Sarmizegetusa Regia, and it is one of the easier ones to reach, with a path climbing through the forest from the valley road.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
51 km in you reach Capâlna. Next is Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
High above the Sebeș and Cugir valleys, where the Șureanu foothills fold into long grassy shoulders, the Romans kept watch over the southern approaches to their province of Dacia. The name on the map, Muncelu-Lăutaorea, belongs to the ridge country above Pianu de Jos, and it is one of the many small frontier points that archaeologists have tied to the Roman defensive system here. Do not expect walls to lean on. What survives on these hilltops is usually a faint platform, a ditch you notice only when the light is low, and a view that explains everything about why a sentry was posted there.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea, about halfway. Next is Comărnicel I.
Comărnicel is the name on the map, and the Dacian fortresses of the Orăștie mountains, listed by UNESCO in 1999, are the reason this country matters. Here, in the first century BC and the first century AD, the Dacian kings built stone citadels on mountain tops, with terraces, walls and sacred precincts, the grandest of them Sarmizegetusa Regia, not far to the north-west.
Read the complete Comărnicel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Comărnicel I sits at 102 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea comes up 128 km in. Next is back through Capâlna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Capâlna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
153 km in you reach back through Capâlna. Next is back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1, late in the day. Next is Village of Câlnic.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Village of Câlnic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 354 km.
Village of Câlnic → Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 → Capâlna is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Capâlna → Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → Comărnicel I is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Comărnicel I → back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pianu de Jos - Muncelu-Lăutaorea → back through Capâlna is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Capâlna → back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Alba Iulia - Apulum / Domus 1 → Village of Câlnic is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.