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.
409 km from Câlnic to Câlnic, about 9 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of Ighiu - Dealul Măgulici, Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic, Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie and Târsa - Platoul Târsa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie.
Warm water has drawn people to this corner of the Mureș valley for at least two thousand years. Below the hill of Dealul Urie, near the spa town of Geoagiu-Băi, the Romans built Germisara, a fort on the hill at Cigmău and a bath settlement around the hot springs a few kilometres away, and soldiers and settlers from across the empire came to soak their aches in the thermal pools. Excavations in one of the old spring basins brought up a remarkable hoard of votive offerings, including small gold plaques dedicated to the healing gods and the nymphs, thrown into the water by grateful bathers. The ruins of the fort on Dealul Urie are low and grassy, but the setting, above a broad river plain with mountains on both sides, makes the climb worthwhile.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie, about halfway. Next is Târsa - Platoul Târsa.
Târsa sits on a high plateau in the Șureanu mountains, in the same ring of hills that sheltered the Dacian kingdom's heart. The platoul, the plateau, is open grassland and forest edge at roughly a thousand metres or higher, the sort of place where shepherds still bring flocks in summer and the wind carries the sound of bells.
Read the complete Târsa - Platoul Târsa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Târsa - Platoul Târsa sits at 156 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie comes up about 250 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 296 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 409 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 → Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie → Târsa - Platoul Târsa is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Târsa - Platoul Târsa → back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cigmău - Germisara / Cetatea / Dealul Urie → back through Trâmpoiele - Grohașu Mic is 46 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 71 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.