18. serpentina ceste na Strmo Reber - Cerk

Access to starting point:
A) First, we drive to Ribnica, and then we continue driving towards Kočevje. After Dolenja vas we continue right in the direction of the settlements Grčarice, Gotenica and Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka we continue right in the direction of Borovec pri Kočevski Reki, the mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnica. In Borovec we once again continue right, and then past the hamlet Ravne in a few kilometers we get to the mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude of 993 m. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and we follow it to the 18th marked hairpin bend, where we park at an appropriate place by the hairpin bend.
B) From Kočevje we drive towards the border crossing Petrina, and then at the end of the settlement Štalcerji we continue right towards Kočevska Reka. In Kočevska Reka we continue left in the direction of Borovec pri Kočevski Reki, the mountain pass Strma Reber and Osilnica. In Borovec we continue right, and then past the hamlet Ravne in a few kilometers we get to the mountain pass Strma Reber, which is situated at an altitude of 993 m. After the mountain pass the road starts descending, and we follow it to the 18th marked hairpin bend, where we park at an appropriate place by the hairpin bend.
C) From Osilnica or Sel pri Osilnici we continue in the direction of the settlements Žurge, Padovo pri Osilnici, Zgornji Čačič and the mountain pass Strma Reber. Further, we drive on an at first slightly winding, and higher serpentine road, which we follow to the 2nd or 18th marked hairpin bend. We park at an appropriate place by the hairpin bend.

Route description:
From the starting point, we continue into the forest, on the path in the direction of Kočevje and Šajbnik. After a few steps, we join the marked path from Osilnica, and we follow it to the right, where we start to ascend steeply. Higher, in a traverse ascent, we arrive at a steep gully, through which we continue the ascent. Further, the blazes from the churned-up gully lead us left onto the path, which runs along the edge of an occasionally precipitous ridge. We continue the ascent on an occasionally somewhat more overgrown path, which retreats somewhat to the right from the precipices, and occasionally we get views of the surrounding hills. A few minutes higher we reach a wide cart track, which we follow to the left, walking along it to the place where it splits into two parts.
We continue on the slightly left cart track (the right cart track bypasses Bezgarska planina and leads towards the mountain pass Strma Reber), which quickly takes us out of the forest onto the lower part of Bezgarska planina. When we reach the mountain pasture, we walk across the meadow in a minute or two to the larger hunting observation post.
From the hunting observation post, where there is a signposted junction, we continue right in the direction of Cerk and Firstov rep (straight Taborska stena, Dragarji...), on the path which descends to a small garden in the middle of the mountain pasture. When the path enters the forest, at the junction of cart tracks we continue straight (here a cart track joins from the right, which branches off straight from the marked path a little before the mountain pasture and is about a minute shorter than the marked path). There follows a few minutes' ascent through the forest, then we reach the main road Osilnica - Kočevska Reka, which we cross carefully.
On the other side of the road, we continue in the direction of Cerk and Firstov rep and continue along the forest road. The path ahead leads along the forest road, from which a marked path branches off to the right after a few minutes.
We continue on the marked path (it is also possible to continue along the unmarked road, as the marked path returns to the said road after a while, and the route along the road is somewhat shorter), which enters dense forest. Through the forest we first ascend moderately, carefully following the blazes, as the otherwise traceable path is relatively poorly trodden. When the path levels out somewhat higher up, we bypass the indistinct summit of Luknja (1079 m) on the left side, to which we can ascend in a few minutes via easier pathless terrain, otherwise we continue on the marked path, which, as described, bypasses the summit on the left. There follow a few shorter ascents and descents, then a somewhat longer descent, which ends when we reach the macadam road.
When we reach the road we continue left (right Firstov rep and Loška stena), and after a minute or two more walking we arrive at the crossroads by the NOB monument, where the road we left earlier joins from the left.
We continue right, past the monument, and continue along the macadam road. Higher up, at the smaller crossroads we continue left, then after a few minutes we arrive at a signposted junction, where a marked path from the hunting hut at Ravne also joins.
The signs for Cerk direct us right onto a cart track. We follow the well-marked but occasionally quite overgrown cart track all the way to a small clearing below the summit of Cerk. Here we continue slightly left, then follow the now somewhat steeper path all the way to the summit of Cerk.
Starting point - Bezgarska planina 45 minutes, Bezgarska planina - Cerk 1:55.

Along the route: Bezgarska planina (895m)

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