Monday, May 6, 2019

Return To Skocjan Cave, 1

We spent a rain day and an administrative day in Ljubliana, the capital of Slovenia, before preceding on to Skocjan Cave and the end of our brief Balkan re-adventure. We visited Skocjan on July 8, 2018, and pronounced it the best cave ever (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2018/07/skocjan-caves-best-ever-period.html); and thus our return. The cave was a bit mistier than in July, due to warmer river temperatures within, but the tour was pretty much the same as in July, a two hour subterranean hike, across excellent ground, half of which was the usual stalagmites and stalactites, and such, and even a couple very big rooms, and half of which was in the underground canyon carved by the torrential river Reka as it wends its way, entirely underground, to Italy and a spring near the Adriatic. We even had the same guide, Gregor, who seemed not to notice that I hung back from the crowd. What was different about this visit was that, after turning off the sound, the flash, and the screen of my iPhone, I took a number of pix, a number of which turned out pretty well, considering. See below and next post.
Preliminaries

Helpful model #14,509

At Skocjan, you can see all the stalactites and stalagmites
you'd ever need to see; unless you're a geologist or
spelunker 




But then you round a bend and climb some steps and begin to hear the roar of the
Reka; and then you begin to make out the contours of the canyon ahead; canyon,
in a cave

And are told the canyon and cave, despite their immense size,  have nearly flooded
on two recent occasions; one just last February

Be that as it may, your eyes follow the lighted trail, which hangs out over the
left bank, as it were, a couple hundred feet below

The Bridge of Khazad-Dum, as Vicki calls it

The river below


One of the older swing bridges, still hanging in there

Torrent, again

Now much further along, looking back at the trail

Vicki

1 comment:

Rebecca said...

That looks both awesome and terrifying!!