The Crow's Flight Trail

This trail event retraces the route taken by Allied POWs who were freed from Stalag XVlllD at Maribor in Slovenia (formerly Yugoslavia) to their eventual extraction point from an airfield at Otok.

The route is approximately 200 miles from start to finish and is usually conducted in three separate phases. It always takes place in September and dates have now been published for this year’s event. The trail can properly be described as Difficult.

2015 Route Development

In 2015 the walkers from the valley of Savinjska dolina followed a more challenging route over the mountain of Menina planina, and also placed route markers and directional signs along the route: from the village of Nova Štifta (Shtifta, altitude 510 m) over Menina crossing Pl. Travnik (alt. 1,220 m) to village of Zg. Tuhinj (alt. 580 m). This section of the route is about 16 km and takes about 5½ hours.

Extreme Hiker

An extreme hiker by the name of Ernest Večko (Vechko) first completed the whole route of about 200 miles in 11 days. The second time with his totally blind friend Borko, he did it in 10 days, and the third time, alone, in 9 days.

They slept ‘rough’, or at farms they passed en route, very much as the partisans and the POWs would have done.

2017 Event Details

Dates for 2017 are as shown. Full details for this year’s event are here, with the necessary application form here.

Please note that if you wish to attend as an individual it might be worthwhile contacting the organisers prior to submitting your registration. The contact details of Mrs Mateja Ogrizek are on the bottom of the application form.