Sveti Mavricij - Sveti Socerb (Artviže)

Access to starting point:
From the highway Ljubljana - Koper, we head to the Divača exit, then continue driving in the direction of the Škocjan Caves and Ilirska Bistrica. Further, we drive through Matavun and Naklo, and immediately after the end of the settlement Naklo we need to pay attention, because we will notice the renovated church of St. Mavricij on the right side, by which we park.

Path description:
From the church of St. Mavricij, we head onto a macadam road in the direction of Artviže and Slavnik. We start along a slightly ascending forest road closed to public traffic, beside which we notice a notice that we are entering the bear area. After the initial gentle ascent, the road gradually begins to descend, then takes us to a smaller junction, where we continue on the upper right road. After a while, the road crosses the bed of the Sušica stream and takes us out of the forest onto a larger meadow, where it ends. Here we continue right on a grassy cart track, which first leads past the hunting observation post, then leads us across a larger meadow without major changes in elevation. On the other side of the meadow we cross a strip of forest or shrubbery, then the cart track widens again into a poor forest road, which leads us past an orchard to an asphalt road, which we follow to the right. Further on we ascend gently at first, then more moderately along the asphalt road, which quickly brings us to a poorly marked junction by a small concrete cross. From the cross we continue on the right, steeper road, which quickly brings us to a sharp right bend, where we leave it. From the bend we continue straight on the marked and locally quite overgrown mountain path, which ascends transversely across a somewhat steeper slope. After a few minutes of traversing we arrive in the village of Podgrad pri Vremah, where at the junctions through the village we follow the blazes and signs for Artviže.
We quickly leave the small village, as the signs direct us left onto a cart track that begins to descend gently to the left. The cart track soon enters the forest, where it mostly in a gentle descent brings us to the nearby stream, which we cross, and behind which we begin to ascend steeply through the forest. The well-marked but slightly overgrown path in places levels out higher up and turns into a cart track, along which we soon reach the nearby macadam road, which we merely cross. We continue the ascent along a partly muddy cart track, which higher up rejoins the macadam road, along which we quickly ascend to the village of Artviže, where ahead of us we spot the logbook box with a stamp and a few meters to the right also the NOB monument.
From the center of the village we continue along the asphalt road, which is not marked further on. At the junctions we keep to the left directions (we overlook the turn-offs to yards), and the road quickly takes us above the village, where the asphalt ends. We continue the ascent along the panoramic grassy slope, along which we walk in a few minutes to the church of St. Socerb, which stands on the highest peak of the Brkini.

On the way: Podgrad pri Vremah (500m)