Some summits have a name that is hardly more than a shrug, and Vârful Ciungii is one of them. Vârf means summit or peak, and ciung is the Romanian word for a stunted or crooked thing, a word used for gnarled trees and bent hills. It stands above the village of Mesesenii de Sus, on the ridge of the Meseș Mountains, a low, long range of wooded hills in north-western Transylvania that forms a barrier between the Transylvanian plateau and the plains of the Pannonian basin to the west. It is not a spectacular range, with its highest points just under a thousand metres, but it has an importance out of proportion to its height.
The reason is the gap. Through the Meseș ridge runs a pass, the Meseș Gate, which has served for two thousand years as the main route between Transylvania and the west, and the Romans guarded it with a fort and a town, Porolissum, just along the ridge. Medieval frontier guards later used the same gap. A hillfort or settlement on a summit like this one would have commanded the traffic along the pass.
The ride is quiet and rural. The country is made of rolling forested ridges, with beech and hornbeam, and small valleys with orchards and hay meadows. The roads are narrow and winding, and the surface ranges from fresh to broken, with livestock and carts common. In spring and autumn the road gets muddy after rain, and fog can drop into the valleys. A clear June day, with the orchards over and the hay cut, is a joy.
Aghireș, Mesesenii de Jos and Zalău are the nearest places. Zalău, a county town of about sixty thousand, is where you can find fuel, supermarkets and a good lunch. The villages have small shops and the occasional stand selling cheese and fruit. Carry water on the ridge, since there are few facilities.
At the top, wind and a view over a sea of hills. In summer, the crickets sing in the grass.