Sunatoare is the Romanian name for St John's wort, the yellow-flowered herb that people have gathered for centuries to make tea and oil, and the hill that bears the name above the village of Spermezeu must have been covered in it once. Spermezeu lies in the north of the Transylvanian plateau, in the hills that separate the valley of the Somes from the counties of Salaj and Bistrita-Nasaud, a landscape of rounded ridges, small streams, hayfields and woodland. Midsummer is the time when the yellow flowers open, and in the old custom of the region, people picked them around the feast of St John, on the twenty-fourth of June.
The ride that includes it pairs it with Surduc and the heights above the Hraii valley, which suggests that the theme is high places along an old frontier or settlement line, the kind of place that gives a view over the valley. Whatever you find, it will be an open ridge with long views over hay meadows and woods, a good place to stop the bike and listen to skylarks and the wind in the grass.
The roads here are the sort that make you slow down. Narrow ribbons of asphalt climb from the villages to the ridgetops, with patches, potholes and gravel on the edges, and the hills keep the traffic light. In June, hay is cut by hand and with small machines, and the smell of drying grass fills the valleys, with farmers piling hay into stacks around wooden poles. Dogs guard the sheepfolds and they take their job seriously, so slow down near flocks. Rain can arrive suddenly, and the clay roads on farm tracks turn slippery in minutes.
Spermezeu is a small place, and for fuel and groceries the nearest town of any size is Caianu Mic, about seven kilometres away, with Beclean and Dej a little farther on. Take water and snacks, since village shops close early and may not have much. Autumn is a fine time for the ride, with woods turning gold and the first mist in the valleys, and the plum harvest bringing the village stills to life. People are generally hospitable to travellers who stop to ask the way, and a few words of Romanian help.