Up in the Arieș valley, in the heart of the Apuseni, sits a scattered Moți commune that lends its name to one of the strangest places in Romania: a cave full of ice. The Scărișoara ice cave lies a few kilometres up a side road from Gârda de Sus, at around eleven hundred metres in the karst plateau above the valley, and it holds one of the largest underground glaciers in Europe. You descend a long metal stairway into a great shaft, and at the bottom there is a block of ice tens of metres thick, layered like a cake, some of it thousands of years old. Even in August the air down there is close to freezing.
The Apuseni are limestone mountains riddled with caves, sinkholes and underground rivers, and the Moți, the people who live here, have long been known for their independence and their woodwork. Their houses, with steep roofs of wooden shingles, are scattered across the slopes rather than gathered in villages, and some families still live on high farms reached only by tracks. They used to travel the plains selling wooden barrels, tubs and tools from their carts, and in the valley you will still see small sawmills and stacks of fresh-cut timber everywhere.
The riding along the Arieș valley is a delight: the river runs fast and clear over rocks beside the road, and the valley narrows and widens between steep wooded slopes, with plenty of bends but nothing very tight. The main valley road has had new asphalt, while side roads such as the one up to the ice cave are narrower and steeper, with sharp bends and loose stones in the corners. The valley gets cooler and greener as you climb toward Arieșeni, and in spring the meadows are full of flowers. Weekends in summer bring Romanian families up from Cluj and Alba, but weekdays are quiet.
Scărișoara has a few small shops and guesthouses where you can get a coffee and a meal, often home-cooked, with polenta, sour cream, cheese and smoked meats. Fuel is not reliably on offer up here, and the nearest proper town is Câmpeni, about twenty kilometres down the valley, where you can fill up and find supermarkets. If you visit the cave, bring a warm layer and allow an hour for the walk and the visit, and do not expect much phone signal in the side valleys.