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.
From Câlnic it runs 475 km to Câlnic; allow about 10 h 18 of riding. It goes by way of Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici, Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic, Vețel - Micia / Grădiște and Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 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 about 40 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 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 comes up about 40 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 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic. Next is Vețel - Micia / Grădiște.
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, about halfway. Next is Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu.
After conquering Dacia in AD 106, the emperor Trajan founded a new capital for the province in the Hațeg basin, and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augusta Dacica Sarmizegetusa, borrowing the name of the Dacian royal capital in the Orăștie mountains to the north-east. The city grew into a prosperous centre, with a forum, temples, baths, and an amphitheatre that could seat thousands, and its ruins, partly excavated, lie in fields beside the modern village of Sarmizegetusa. The site has a museum, and you can walk around the forum and the amphitheatre, imagining the gladiatorial games that once filled it.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu sits at 186 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Vețel - Micia / Grădiște comes up about 312 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 388 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic. Next is back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici, 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 475 km.
Village of Câlnic → Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici → Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic → Vețel - Micia / Grădiște is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vețel - Micia / Grădiște → Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → back through Vețel - Micia / Grădiște is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vețel - Micia / Grădiște → back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic → back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici → Village of Câlnic is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.