Sveti Jurij - Donačka gora (western path)

Access to the starting point:
From the Ljubljana - Maribor motorway, take the Dramlje exit and follow the road towards Šentjurje, Rogaška Slatina and Rogatec. In Rogatec, the signs for Donačka gora direct you to the left. Just a little further on, you reach the next crossroads, where you continue to the right, again in the direction of Donačka gora. Continue towards the village of Sveti Jurij (do not follow the signs for Donačka gora). In the village of Sveti Jurij, turn left uphill towards the church of St. George, by which you park. You can park a little further down the road in the parking lot.

Path description:
From St George's Church, continue up the road. After 100 m walk, you will reach a crossroads where you turn left. After a further few dozen steps, you reach a farm where a marked footpath turns right uphill and initially climbs across a meadow, then turns right where it crosses lane of bushes and then, at a cross, leads to the next farm.
Here we continue up the marked cart track, which soon leads us over a scenic slope to a marked crossroads.
Continue straight on in the direction of Rudi's home and St Donat's, and after a few minutes' further walking the slope eases and the path turns left. There is a short crossing of the slopes to the west to the Church of St Donatus.
From the church, continue in the direction of Rudi's home, following the path into the forest. The path initially crosses the western slopes of Donačka gora and then climbs for a short distance up a steep and, especially in the wet, dangerously slippery slope. The path then leads to a farm, after which you enter a road, where you continue to the right. The road, which continues the climb, leads us after a good 5 minutes of further walking to Rudi's home.
From Rudi's home, continue towards the top of Donačka gora and initially walk along the macadam road, from which you will soon turn right towards the easier path to Donačka gora (straight challenging path to Donačka gora and Žetale).
The way forward climbs moderately through the forest at first, but after a few minutes it switches to steep slopes and becomes steeper. Further on, we climb along a well-maintained mountain trail, which climbs in many switchbacks. Higher up, you pass a memorial plaque commemorating Ernst Froelich, who in 1853 blazed the trail to Donačka gora, which was the first marked trail in Slovenia. After the memorial plaque, there is a few minutes' climb up the north-west slope of Donačka gora, then you reach a ridge where you go left. Climb up and along the forested ridge and within a few minutes reach the higher, western summit of Donačka gora.
Starting point - Rudijev dom 0:50, Rudijev dom - west peak Donačka gora 0:45.

On the way: Sveti Donat (511m), Rudijev dom na Donački gori (590m)

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