Day 116 – Slovenia 2 - THE CAVES! - Wednesday January 4th, 2012

It was an early start to the day today, we got up 5:30 to make it to our 6:30am bus to Divaci (pronounced – Divcha).  This is a small town in the southwest of Slovenia.  We chose this bus so that we could make a full day of Caving!  Arriving at 8am meant that we had 2 hours before the cave tour started, had we waited for the other bus we would not have made it in time for the first tour at 10am.  We stopped before our journey to the caves for a coffee, tea, or hot chocolate – depending on if you were Jen, Lizzie or Cassidy.  The little café was filled with older gentlemen starting their day with coffee and conversation. It reminded me of Weeping Water, NE where my family is from. People go for coffee to start the day. I of course could not understand what the men were say since they were speaking Slovenian, but I imagine it was about the happenings for the day, what the weather would bring, and reminiscing about the days past.

We left the café to find the trail to walk to the Skocjan Caves.  According to the travel guide, it was a 45min walk on a trail to the cave.  Although we did find out they were correct, it was not as easy to find our way.  The waiter at the restaurant gave us a helpful start, telling us how to get out of town and make it to the little village where we would then meet the trail portion.  We were expecting the beginning of the trail to be more well marked then it turned out to be. We had lots of second guessing amongst us but with Lizzie’s proficient map reading skills we found our way…. I would say that the particular travel guide we read should have a statement of reassurance to the travelers something like “it may seem you are going the wrong way, but keep going, walk through the main intersection, over the highway, and even if there are not signs- keep going!” :)  The trail turned out to have wonderful views! The village had a great little church.  The trail was well marked through the wooded area.  We stopped at several points to take some picutres.

The church in the village

Walking the trail - Lizzie

Cassidy and I walking the trail

One of the views!

One of the waterfalls heading into the cave

The Skocjan cave is on the UNESCO world heritage list. (This is a list of cultural and natural places/sites that are considered to be important to world heritage. Here is the site about the caves on UNESCO’s site:  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/390).  Our tour of the cave was lead by a young woman who spoke MANY languages!  She immediately figured out the languages spoken by the people on the tour, for our group it was English and Italian.  Throughout the whole tour she would give explanations in both languages.  Here is the entrance to the cave

Through archeological excavations, it has been reveled that the area around the cave and inside has been occupied for more than 10,000 years.  The cave has been found to be written about since the time of Posidinuis in 135-50 BC, and many descriptions including important works in 1599 and 1689.   The cave is classified under the karst phenomena, which refers to limestone and many other scientific explanations.  It wasn’t until 1839 that the depths of the cave were explored.  The men that began exploring and descended 100m into its depths. We were not able to take pictures within the cave, but I did get a picture of one of the trails they had built during those first explorations (we were aloud to take pictures at the exit where natural light existed- see the picture below).  In 1851 the explorers discovered the Murmuring Water chamber- this is where the Reka (which means “river”) flows through.  The river erodes the limestone and causes the river to go underground through the cave and then back out on the other side. There were beautiful waterfalls throughout, we didn’t see them all but there are 25 cascades throughout the cave system that is 6.2km (3.85 miles) in length.  The tour portion was 3km and took about 1 and ½ hours.  It was interesting as we would leave one area or chamber, the guide would shut the lights back off to keep the cave in its natural state.  

The walk way from the original explorers 

Cassidy, Lizzie and I at the cave exit

Inside the cave

One of the waterfalls and the bridge we walked

When we arrived back to the surface, and to the information area, we had a decision to make.  We needed to get back to Divaci to catch a bus to Postojna to the next cave. We knew the bus time, and had almost 2 hours before it would leave.  What we had to decide then was if we would walk the trail back, call a taxi or wait 2 hours for a bus to come to the cave.  We didn’t think that there was enough time to wait for the bus, a taxi would probably be expensive and we would have to find a number, and walking although not terrible was not something the whole group wanted to do knowing how much walking still lay ahead for our day. Cassidy got the courage to go and ask two of the other females on our tour if they could drop us off in Divaci, they agreed.   One of them was a professor in England and the other was studying in England but originally from Slovenia. They were so kind!!   Back in Divaci we went back to the same café to see if they were serving lunch- indeed they were… it was a perfect break for an already eventful morning! 

Human Fish- Proteus Anguinus

Arriving in Postojna we walked to the caves about 1.5km from the bus station. This cave was much more tourist driven than Skocjan.  Arriving at the cave I was reminded of the entrance to a theme park… big signs, arrows pointing to all of the attractions.  It was also very obvious that it would be a very hopping place in the warmer months.  There were lots of stalls that looked as though they would have food, souvenirs, and other things to buy- but they were all closed.  The tour was about an hour away so we bought a combination ticket that included a trip through the cave and Vivarium Proteus. This was a passage through the side of the cave that has live specimens of the different inhabitants of the cave.  We were able to walk through the area and also see speleo-biological laboratory.  Here we were introduced to a live Human Fish or Proteus Anguinus. These creatures are the largest creatures within the caves in this area. They live in water, they are blind, their skin has no pigment, and it has 4 limbs.  They are really interesting creatures!!

Vivarium Proteus - displays of live cave creatures!

We then boarded the trains to the depths of the cave system!  Postonjna Cave is a network of 20km. The cave was discovered in 1818 and was opened in 1819 to the public.  The explorers continued work and opening new areas each year until 1829 when the existing area as we saw it was opened. Railraway lines were first built through the cave in 1872.  The cave had both stalactites-grows down from the top and stalagmites-grow from the ground up, as well as columns when the two grow together.  It takes 10 years for these stalactites and stalagmites to grow just 1mm! Inside the cave there were areas where receptions could be held as well as where concerts are held! It was a really neat set up. This cave was very different than the other even though both of them are in the Karst Region and made with limestone.  The paths were more tourist friendly, not as much like a hike.  There were several guides for the large group and we were divided by language we spoke. We again were not allowed to take pictures within the cave, but I did find two on the cave’s website that I included below. I also have to share that in the Postojna cave there is an underground Post Office that has stood there since 1899!   

Inside the cave

The train that took us down into the cave

After the cave we walked back to the bus station for the evening bus back to Ljubljana. We had a quite night at the hostel just cooking food from a local store.  We were pretty zonked out and needed some rest. Traveling is a tough job, it comes with great perks, but it is hard work too.  You have to figure out a new city, you sleep in a different bed, and for us it also means learning to travel with people that you didn’t even know before starting the journey.

Lesson: I have to say traveling has a huge learning curve, and I am still going up… but looking back it has been a great climb and I am learning SO MUCH about the world, people and myself!