In Bleiburg, follow the “Hauptstraße” (main street) featuring a tourist office, bank, cafes and shops almost all the way to the castle. On reaching it, keep to the left. Here the trail is marked once again (red-white-red, and also as the K5 Mikitzweg). Follow a slightly uphill woodland track. The trail is somewhat overgrown in parts, so long trousers would not be a bad idea. At a small clearing above a farmhouse, a beautiful view over the Petzen and the Hochobir can once again be enjoyed. A roughly 5-min walk on the woodland path brings you to a forest road that must be followed for approx. 15 min. Keep to the right below the tree-lined village of Kömmelgupf. A good view can be had over the fields. After a short stretch along the asphalt road, the trail again turns into a woodland path and leads directly to the Slovenian border, which is marked by the borderstone XVIII/1. The trail swings to the left and then right until coming back onto a forest path leading to Hof Straunik farmstead (approx. 3h). From Straunik, follow the path to the Pozdich-Hof farmstead. Continue further on the forest road until reaching the little village of Bach. At the church and the fire station, keep to the left. After an approx. 15-min walk along the road, keep to the right and cross the fields above, running on a level with and almost parallel to the street. In the wooded area, the path slopes gently downwards and bends to the right. Directly at the bridge over the Drau, which leads directly into the centre of Lavamünd, the trail opens onto the road. Immediately after the bridge over the Drau, the trail turns uphill to the left. Pay attention to the signposting! Keep to the right in both Bach and Illmitzen.
(Christina Schwann, OeAV)
 

Lavamünd is situated in a protected location at the point where the Lavant river flows into the Drau, thus giving it the name "Lavamünd" (Lava mouth). In the north, the landscape is framed by the foothills of the Koralpe and in the south by the Drau river. In the Ice Age, the Drau glacier, which stretched as far as the Bleiburg and Ruden basin, pushed moraines in the direction of Lavamünd that consequently blocked off the Lavanttal valley. This created a lake in which deposits formed. After the glacier had melted, the Lavant and Drau rivers had carved themselves into this sediment and formed a high plateau in the Lavamünd area. The subsoil consists predominantly in a crystalline basis of Triassic dolomites. Lavamünd is only situated at 349m in altitude and thus makes Lavamünd the lowest located town in Carinthia. The mild climate makes it possible to cultivate grapes, flax, tobacco and hops. Lavamünd, only 5km from the Slovenian border, is already known from Roman times - such a strategically important point between two rivers offering both protection and a transport axis could not be left unused by the Romans. Discoveries found at the Elbitz, a raised terrain to the east of the confluence of the Lavant with the Drau, and also during the construction of the community hall, indicate the importance of this junction for the Romans. A local borderstone decorated with a dolphin dates back to the Roman era. Today it can be admired today in front of the Alderwirt guesthouse. Coins from the time of Emperor Domitian (78-81 A.D.) and Marc Aurel (161-175) and also of earlier emperors such as Constantine (314-323) and Crispus (320-323) were found in the foundations of today’s town hall. Due to the location on the two major rivers, rafting was practiced here for many centuries. Some of the rafts even reached as far as the Black Sea. Lavamünd fell victim to the plague in 1715 and in 1851 violent high waters completely flooded the main square. (Christina Schwann, OeAV)