La Bolovani means at the boulders, which tells you most of what a local would have said about this spot on the hills near the village of Lunca, between Monor and Șieuț on the eastern edge of the Transylvanian basin. Archaeologists know it as one of the sites along the Roman frontier of Dacia, a small watch post on a ridge commanding views east towards the Călimani and Gurghiu mountains, beyond which lay lands Rome never controlled. In 2024 it joined the World Heritage listing of the Dacian limes, though in the field you will find a quiet hill, sheep and very few signs.
This is the meeting point of Transylvania's Romanian, Hungarian and Saxon worlds. To the south, the town of Reghin is famous for violin making, with workshops that have supplied orchestras across Europe, and its Saxon church and old houses hint at the town's past. Along the Mureș valley, the castle at Brâncovenești, a Renaissance stronghold rebuilt many times, stands above the river. The Călimani, an extinct volcanic range with a vast caldera, rise in the north-east, wild and forested, home to bears and capercaillie.
For riders, the countryside here offers quiet, rolling roads between villages, with long views and patched tarmac. The main road from Reghin to Bistrița cuts across it, and from Reghin you can follow the upper Mureș through the gorge between the Călimani and Gurghiu mountains towards Toplița, a fine, winding valley ride with forest on both sides and the river beside you. Watch out for horse carts, especially at dusk when they often have no lights, and for potholes after winter. Late spring and early autumn are ideal.
For a tank of petrol, Teaca is nineteen kilometres away, and Reghin or Bistrița have a wider choice of stations, garages and supermarkets. The villages themselves offer a shop, perhaps a terrace bar, and a lot of curious looks at a loaded motorcycle. Watch for carved wooden gates outside the houses, often dated and decorated with sun symbols, and in late summer for tables by the roadside piled with honey jars, plums and baskets of forest mushrooms. A conversation in sign language with a farmer leaning on his gate is part of the experience.