Osp - Socerb Castle

Access to starting point:
We leave the Ljubljana-Koper highway at the Črni Kal exit, then drive briefly towards Črni Kal, at the pillars of the Črni Kal viaduct we turn left towards the settlement Osp. The road then leads us through the settlement Gabrovica pri Črnem Kalu, after the mentioned settlement, after approximately 1 km, we arrive at the village Osp, where the described path begins in the middle of the settlement. A suitable place for parking is about 500 m before the settlement.

Route description:
From the place where we parked we walk to the centre of the village, where at the NOB monument we notice the first blazes.
We continue right (left downhill to Tinjan and tourist farm and camp pri Vovku) and start ascending among houses, at crossroads we follow the blazes. From the marked path soon to the right branches off the path to the climbing area, we continue to the nearby parish church of St. Peter, which we bypass on the right side.
The village ends here, the road changes into a cart track, along which we quickly arrive at a marked junction.
From the junction we continue straight ahead (right to Kastelec and castle Socerb through Kastelec), the cart track gradually begins to descend transversely. After a few minutes of gentle descent we arrive in a smaller valley, where from the left joins an unmarked path from the hamlet Mlinarji, we continue straight and a little further cross Zasedski potok, after which at the junction we go right towards Socerb and Slavnik. At the next junction we leave the valley and go slightly left onto a wide and well-beaten path, which past the hunting observatory brings us to a somewhat wider cart track. A little further we step out of the forest, the path forks.
We continue straight on the marked path (via the left path we arrive in Italy), which becomes steeper and ascends through interesting landscape. When we approach the state border completely and thus the village Prebenico / Prebeneg, we continue right and begin to ascend transversely. During the transverse ascent we occasionally get a nice view of Tinjan, Miljski zaliv, higher up also the Črni Kal viaduct. Higher we reach an asphalt road, which we follow to the right (left to Dolina and Boljunec, settlements on the Italian side of the border), along it in a few steps we arrive at a crossroads, where we continue sharply left towards Socerb (straight to Kastelec).
We continue along the asphalt road, which brings us to the settlement Socerb, we go past the NOB monument and chapel onto the marked path, which past a few houses returns to the road. Along the road we continue to the nearby last house, then via stairs we reach castle Socerb, from which a nice view opens up.
Description and pictures refer to the situation in 2018 (April).

Along the route: Prebenico / Prebeneg (235m), Socerb (371m)

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