Rebrca / Rechberg - Stara gora / Altberg (via Bukovnik)

Access to starting point:
A) Via the Ljubelj border crossing we drive into Austria, then in the settlement Podljubelj / Unterloibl we turn right in the direction of the Hofer store. When we arrive in Borovlje / Ferlach, at the intersection somewhat after the railway track we turn left (to the right of the intersection is the Eurospar store), at the next intersection after a few 100 meters we turn right in the direction of Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel. Towards Železna Kapla we drive to the settlement Jeriše / Jerischach, after the settlement at the intersection we turn right in the direction of the settlement Podkraj / Unterort (left Goriče Goritschach). At the smaller intersection in the middle of Podkraj we continue left, then we start to ascend to a smaller saddle, by which there is an intersection and a chapel. We park at an appropriate place by the chapel.
B) Via the Jezerski vrh border crossing we drive into Austria, then after Železna Kapla we continue slightly left onto the road in the direction of the village Rebrca / Rechberg. Along the road we then quickly ascend to the mentioned village, at the intersection in the middle of the village we continue left. The road we continue on leads us towards the settlement Podkraj / Unterort, and then before the road starts descending towards the mentioned place, we arrive at the chapel, in front of which we park at an appropriate place by the road.
C) We drive to Podjuna, then we follow the signs for Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel. After the settlement Miklavčevo / Miklauzhof, we leave the road towards Železna Kapla and continue right in the direction towards Celovec / Klagenfurt and Borovlje / Ferlach. We then drive along the main road towards Borovlje, but we do not drive on it for long, as the signs for Podkraj / Unterort direct us left onto a somewhat narrower road. At the smaller intersection in the middle of Podkraj we continue left, then we start to ascend to a smaller saddle, by which there is an intersection and a chapel. We park at an appropriate place by the chapel.

Path description:
From the intersection by the chapel, we head onto the road in the direction of the settlement Suha / Zauchen, i.e. house numbers 16,17,18, 50, 54, 63 and 69; by the intersection there are also signs for Obir. The road first leads us through the forest, then brings us out of the forest, and we follow it practically to its end at the homestead Bukovnik / Bukownik. Behind the last house we continue over the grazing fence, then the cart track takes us into the forest. Through the forest we ascend along the cart track (the cart track has a few poorly marked shortcuts higher up), along it we walk to the saddle between Rokov vrh / Rochus Berg on the left and Stara gora / Altberg on the right.
From the saddle, where there is an older chapel, we continue right (left Rokov vrh, straight Setzhube) in the direction of Obir and Stara gora (signs for the mentioned mountains are very old).
Until now the still relatively easy-to-follow path becomes more overgrown further on, and soon it also splits. Straight ahead continues the more overgrown marked path towards Obir, while we continue right onto the less overgrown but henceforth unmarked path that leads to Stara gora. Although the path further on is not marked, occasionally some marks can be noticed in the form of Austrian blazes, only the colors are different, namely white, black and white again, and most of the time marks with fluorescent spray can also be noticed.
From the junction onwards the path enters the forest and starts to ascend more steeply. Partly quite overgrown but mostly followable, the path higher reaches a cart track where it levels out; we soon leave the cart track, then briefly continue parallel to the cart track. Somewhat further we briefly touch the cart track, then the path becomes steeper again. Further on we ascend somewhat left of the ridge, gradually approaching a forest road onto which we do not step. The path soon returns to the ridge, then continues somewhat left of the ridge along some kind of old, partly overgrown clearing. A steep ascent follows, and when higher we approach the cliff, the path temporarily turns somewhat left. Above the cliff along the path we notice a large crack, we continue along the right side of the crack, behind the crack the path turns left and approaches the forest road again. A somewhat less steep ascent follows along the still followable but occasionally overgrown path. Higher we approach the road once more, and from the ridge path some views occasionally open up. Somewhat further along the path we notice a natural window with a vertical entrance, the path levels out a little higher and brings us to a small clearing with a salt lick. At the salt lick we approach the road for the last time, then we follow the ridge path running through the forest all the way to the summit of Stara gora.
Description and pictures refer to the condition in 2017 (August and September).

On the way: Setzhube (805m)