Due to the rock formation of the Karst region, this place is home to many large caves. There are two of note on the tourist track (and more if you are an adventurous caver) - the Postojana caves and the Skocjan caves. The first provides a rail system to drive you through, and though described as spectacular and breath taking, we opted for the Skocjan caves as they required you to walk the guided path and sounded less touristy.
We had a slow start, catching on on some free wifi access and didn't leave until 11. But Slovenia isn't a big country and we didn't have far to drive. They were well sign posted and the GPS got us there just fine.
We had time for a cook up in the van before the next guided walk commenced at 1 pm. It was a hot 24 deg sunny day, but the caves were reported to be only 12 deg once inside. We walked along a valley and descended into the cave entrance. There was an excellent path, about a metre wide, lots of sections with handrails, and all developed to blend seamlessly in with the environment. A very good lighting system highlighted features of the caves, and yet we didn't lose the sense that we were in complete darkness with out the lighting. We walked up and down, deeper into various sections, at one point we were 90 metres underground. Some sections were huge caverns, and though I was wary of low hanging rocks as I walked, we never felt we were in a confined space. They were massive. And when we came to the river section, the riverbed we looked down on was 150 metres below ground. The caves were full of stalagmites and stalagtites, some of the larger specimens 250,000 years old. Many stalegtites were growing right along the pathway, but we were asked not to touch them as the fat and deposits on our skin could disrupt their growth. In the very dry sections of the cave, these grew 1 cm every 150 years.
The caverns were huge and very very dramatic. And we appreciated the great pathways when we could see the old narrow steep steps carved out of sections of rock.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside the main cave system, so I have used some promotional material to give a taste of what we saw.
When we came to the end of the guided tour, we were directed to either take the scenic walk up the cliff, or there was an elevator. The walk thus far was only 1.5 hours so we opted for the scenic climb and walked back up to the car park. While the cave had been pleasantly cool, it was fine as were walking up and down, but we were not so keen on the hot climb up another 450 steps and by the time we got to the top I'd wished we'd taken the elevator. It was 34 deg in the car park. We were so stuffed by this point that we decided to just drive back to last nights camp and make use of the pool.
Still havnt had a chance to find some legit pics of the caves
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