Up the Gurghiu valley in Mureș County, the villages still wear wood: carved gates, shingled roofs, little wooden churches and stacks of firewood against every wall. Ibănești is one of the best known of them, a long village strung along the valley where traditional dress, music and crafts have hung on more stubbornly than in most of Transylvania. On a hill nearby, Cetățuia Mică, the little citadel, marks a point on the eastern frontier of Roman Dacia, where a chain of small forts and watchtowers looked toward the volcanic Gurghiu mountains and the lands beyond. These eastern posts are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024, though on the ground they are grassy earthworks rather than walls.
Above Hodac, the neighbouring village, a mountain fair has been held for generations, traditionally a gathering where young people from the valleys met, courted and, so the story goes, arranged marriages. Today it is more of a folk festival with music and dancing, and it gives a taste of how isolated mountain communities kept their social lives turning.
The riding up the valley is a gentle climb along the river, through villages and meadows, with the forested slopes closing in as you go. Surfaces are mostly decent on the main valley road but can turn rough higher up, with potholes and gravel, and forestry roads into the Gurghiu mountains are best left to proper off-road machines. Horse-drawn carts, cows walking home in the evening and children on bicycles are part of the traffic.
Ibănești and Hodac have small shops and bars, and Gurghiu, about eight kilometres down the valley, is a little larger. For a sure tank and a supermarket, head for Reghin, the market town at the mouth of the valley, which is famous for its violin workshops; instruments made there are sold around the world. Food in the valley is homely: sour soups, smoked bacon, polenta with sheep's cheese and pastries filled with cheese or cabbage.
Late spring brings meadows full of flowers and fresh green beech woods, and autumn turns the forests copper. Winter here is long and snowy. The valley has a slow, unhurried rhythm, and the best way to enjoy it is to match it: ride at a walking pace through the villages, nod back to the old men on the benches, and leave the stopwatch at home.