Ileanda is a village on the Someș, the big river of north-western Transylvania, at a point where the valley narrows between wooded hills on its way from Dej towards Jibou. The railway runs alongside the water, the road keeps company with both, and the hills on either side rise in long slopes of beech, hornbeam and pasture. La Căsoi is a local name for a spot among those hills; you will not find a monument here, just the landscape and whatever the season is doing to it.
As riding goes, the Someș corridor is an easy, flowing valley road with river views, broad bends and the occasional village slowing you down. The real fun starts when you turn off it. Side roads climb north towards the Lăpuș country and Maramureș, or south into the Sălaj hills, and they get narrower, steeper and rougher with every kilometre. Expect blind crests, sudden gravel, dogs and the occasional herd crossing. Spring and autumn are the best seasons; high summer can be hot and hazy in the valley, and winter turns the side roads muddy.
This is a border land in more ways than one. The Someș valley has long been the route between the Transylvanian basin and the plains of the north-west, and the villages are a mix of Romanian and Hungarian communities with wooden and stone churches side by side. North of here, Maramureș is famous for its tall wooden churches with needle spires, several of them on the World Heritage list, and some of the villages around Ileanda have older, smaller cousins of that style.
The river is the dominant presence. In spring the Someș runs high and brown with snowmelt from the Rodna mountains; by late summer it slows and clears, and herons stand in the shallows. Storks nest on poles in the villages, and the fields along the river are full of maize and sunflowers.
Ileanda is a village of a couple of thousand people, which usually means a shop and a bar but not much else, so do not count on fuel here. The nearest town of five thousand or more is Copalnic Mănăștur, about twenty kilometres away, and Dej is the safer bet for a full tank, cash and a proper meal. Fill up before you leave the main valley.