Naraplje - Jelovice

Access to starting point:
A) We leave the Štajerska motorway at the Slovenska Bistrica - south exit, then follow the road towards Poljčane, from there towards Makole, Majšperk and Ptuj. At the end of Majšperk, from the roundabout, we head in the direction of Žetale and Jurovci. We continue on the main road to the settlement Stanečka vas and a little further. At the end of the settlement Stanečka vas, we continue right towards Žetale and Naraplje. We quickly arrive in Naraplje, and we drive along the road to the centre of the settlement, where we park in the parking lot next to the sports field and the hiking signposts.
B) We leave the Podravska motorway at the Lancova vas exit, then follow the signs for Podlehnik and Jurovci. At the end of the settlement Tržec, from the roundabout, we go right towards Jurovci and continue driving towards Majšperk. In the settlement Stogovci, we turn left towards Žetale and quickly arrive in the settlement Naraplje, and we drive to the centre of the settlement, where we park in the parking lot next to the hiking signposts and sports field.

Path description:
From the parking lot, we head towards the path to Jelovice and Donačka gora, first walking along the road by which we arrived at the starting point; still before crossing the stream and before the bus stop, we go left (unmarked) onto a meadow, across which we ascend to the edge of the forest, where a marked cart track appears.
The poorly trodden cart track ascends transversely to the right and soon turns into an initially quite steep path. Higher up, we reach the weekend cottages, past which we ascend to the asphalt road, where we go left. This is followed by walking past a few more houses, then we continue briefly along the cart track and reach another road. We continue along the ridge, and a little further on we join the path from Stogovci.
We continue along the asphalt road for a short time; when the road forks, we go straight onto the footpath, along which we ascend to the church of St. Bolfenk in a few minutes.
From the church, we continue south and descend along the macadam road to the nearby chapel, where we reach the asphalt road.
We continue left towards the summit of Jelovice and Donačka gora (right descends to Stogovci) and continue along the asphalt road, which turns right. After a few minutes, we reach the logbook box (control point no. 8 on the Haloze mountain trail), and we continue along the road that leads along the eastern slopes of Kerješetov vrh. At the next junction, by the NOB monument, we continue right, then the signs for Jelovice summit direct us right onto the footpath. This is followed by an ascent through the forest; after a few minutes, we join a cart track along which we continue the transverse ascent. When we reach the ridge connecting the summit of Jelovice with Kerješetov vrh, we go left (right to Kerješetov vrh) and step onto a poorer road. We continue along the poorer road, which first ascends gently, then moderately. We bypass the nearby meadow, from which a nice view opens up, on the left side; behind the nearby hut, we arrive at a marked junction right next to the summit of Jelovice.
Here we go right onto the poor unmarked path, along which we reach the highest summit of the Haloze in a few steps.
Naraplje - St. Bolfenk 1:00, St. Bolfenk - summit of Jelovice 0:40.
The description and pictures refer to the condition in April 2022.

On the way: Church of St. Bolfenk (Jelovice) (537m)