Path map

  1. The route starts at the parking place in front of the autocamp, from where starts to climb towards the village following the trail markers which directs us, passing by the church of St. Thomas, left to the cartroad which slowly rises through the forest towards northwest.
  2. When the marked path turns left and steeply up, we continue straight ahead and almost horizontally to the gorge.
  3. Here, we turn right and after 30 metres left to a less used path which steeply climbs through the pine forest to the meadow underneath the village Prebeneg.
  4. We continue our walk up the path, near the border to the upper cartroad, cross the asphalt road and arrive to the village Socerb.
  5. We climb (passing by the village chapel and the puddle) to the rocky edge of the castle, from where a marvellous view opens towards Trieste and a great part of Istria. The castle with the tavern is certainly worth visiting, but we continue along the asphalt road which runs from the village to the castle, in order to visit the near cave Sveta jama with the underground church, the only one in Slovenia. From there, the road continues towards the edge of a wide Karst plateau.
  6. The wooden signpost directs us left (we cross the wire and follow the trail markers) towards southeast along the rocky border almost to the road Koper – Kozina.
  7. We descend underneath the rocky border and than climb to the panoramic peak Varda, which we can cross in the direction of south or go around on the right by using the forest road.
  8. When we meet the cartroad coming from the direction of Kastelec, we turn up left, cross the road through the underpass and after a gentle climb reach the quarry Črnotiče.
  9. We continue along the road through the nice pine forest which leads us to the road for Podgorje.
  10. From there, the path gently sweeps down to a lower plate and continues on macadam towards the border of the wall above Črni Kal.
  11. Here, we can decide whether to climb the slope passing by the water reservoir and turning left up the wall to the ruins of the old castle from 11the century which squats on the tower of rock, away from the main road. Or we continue the path straight ahead underneath the climbing wall till the upper part of Črni Kal. Here we can visit the Benko house built in 1489, the oldest example of a rural house in Slovenia, and the hanging tower by the church of St. Valentine.
  12. From there we sweep down to the lower part of Črni Kal and continue along the road, passing by the monument of the Overseas brigades on the left and than turn right under the mighty viaduct, towards Stara Gabrovica which was burnt down in 1944.
  13. We follow the path down the cartroad, passing Mišja peč which belongs, together with the wall of Osp, between the most famous European climbing walls.
  14. Only a short walk through the bottom of the valley separates us from our starting point – Osp, one of the oldest Slovenian villages.
  15. From here, the path leads us towards the turn where we can choose climb underneath the wall Velika stena which hides the entrance to the cave Jama and the string of the river Osp.

Path altimetry