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 Zăvoi it runs 515 km to Zăvoi; allow about 16 h 05 of riding. The stops in between: Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu, Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2, Cugir - Bătrâna and Voineasa - Crac-Găuri. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 44 km this is Romania Transalpina, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Bistra valley is a natural corridor, and armies have known it for millennia. Running east from Caransebeș toward the Iron Gate of Transylvania and the Hațeg basin, it was the route by which Trajan's legions advanced on the Dacian heartland in the wars of AD 101 to 106, and later the road that linked Roman forts and towns along the way. Near the village of Voislova, by the railway station, the remains of a Roman site have been identified as counted within the UNESCO serial site of the Dacian frontier, a reminder of how important this valley was to the Roman presence in the province.
Read the complete Voislova - Gara CFR write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Voislova - Gara CFR is where the day begins. 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 comes up 37 km in. Next is Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2.
On a hill above the Strei valley near the village of Pui, in south-western Transylvania, faint earthworks mark one of the many small Roman military posts that guarded the province of Dacia after Trajan conquered it in AD 106. The Romans held Dacia for about a hundred and seventy years, and they ringed it with forts, watchtowers and roads; in 2024 a long series of these sites was added to the World Heritage list as the Frontiers of the Roman Empire in Dacia. At Dealul Robului there is nothing grand to see, just the shape of the ground under grass and trees, but the position tells you everything: a clear view down the valley, which was one of the routes into the heart of the province.
Read the complete Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
75 km in you reach Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2. Next is Cugir - Bătrâna.
South of the town of Cugir, the land rises into the Șureanu mountains, a sprawling range of beech and spruce forests, high meadows and rounded summits in the heart of the Southern Carpathians. This is the country of the Dacians, the people who ruled much of present-day Romania before the Roman conquest in the early second century. Their capital, Sarmizegetusa Regia, and a ring of mountain fortresses lie in the Orăștie mountains to the west, and they are listed by UNESCO as the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains. Bătrâna, on the high ground above the Cugir valley, belongs to the network of ancient sites scattered across these hills, where Dacians and Romans watched each other across the ridges.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cugir - Bătrâna, 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 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cugir - Bătrâna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cugir - Bătrâna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna comes up 187 km in. Next is back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
224 km in you reach back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2. Next is back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu, late in the day. Next is Voislova - Gara CFR.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Voislova - Gara CFR write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 515 km.
Voislova - Gara CFR → Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 → Cugir - Bătrâna is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cugir - Bătrâna → Voineasa - Crac-Găuri is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Voineasa - Crac-Găuri → back through Cugir - Bătrâna is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cugir - Bătrâna → back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pui - Dealul Robului 1 and 2 → back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sarmizegetusa - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Augu → Voislova - Gara CFR is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.