Clocotal is one of the low hills that crowd around Zalau, in northwestern Romania, and its name, Dealul Clocotal, simply means Clocotal Hill. Nothing marks it as a famous monument, and honesty is the best approach here: this is a stop in the country, and the interest is in the land itself. The hill is part of the rolling Salaj landscape, a region of wooded ridges, small valleys and farmland on the western flank of the Transylvanian basin, where the foothills of the Meses Mountains slope toward the Somes plain.
The forest is mostly beech and oak, with hornbeam and wild cherry, and in spring the woodland floor is covered with wild garlic and anemones. Autumn brings rich colour, with golden beech leaves lying thick on the ground and the smell of damp earth and mushrooms. Locals pick mushrooms and forest berries, and shepherds still graze flocks on the open ridgelines. Birdlife is varied, with buzzards circling above the clearings and woodpeckers drumming in the trees. At night, you can sometimes hear owls.
The tracks that climb the hills are a mix of paved village roads, gravel and dirt, and some are steep and rutted after rain. A touring bike will manage the paved roads easily, but light trail machines are happier on the tracks. Always check the surface when the weather has been wet, because the clay is slick. Trucks hauling timber can appear on narrow roads. Mobile signal is generally good near the town, but weaker in the valleys.
Zalau, four kilometres away, provides everything: fuel, food, repairs and places to sleep. A little further, the village of Mirsid, with just over two thousand people, has shops and a few cafes. The area is rural, and the pace of life is slow. In the countryside, you may see people making hay by hand in July, with wooden rakes and haystacks built around a central pole, a sight that has vanished in much of Europe.
A day here is best taken slowly, with time to stop at a village well or to talk to a shepherd, if you have a few words of Romanian. A small gift of goodwill goes a long way.