Cave sights in Slovenia
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Postojna Cave
Visitors get to see about 5.7km of the cave on 1½-hour tours; some 4km of this is covered by an electric train, which runs as far as the Big Mountain (Velika Gora) cavern. Here you stand under one of the five signs identifying your language, and a guide escorts you through halls, galleries and caverns.
These are dry galleries, decorated with a vast array of white stalactites shaped like needles, enormous icicles and even fragile spaghetti. The stalagmites take familiar shapes - pears, cauliflower and sand castles - but there are also bizarre columns, pillars and translucent curtains that look like rashers of bacon.
From the Velika Gora cavern you continue across the…
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Predjama Castle Cave
Below Predjama Castle, is a 6km network of galleries spread over four levels. Much of it is open only to speleologists, but casual visitors can see about 900m of it. Longer tours to the end of the cave's Eastern Passage or Erazem's Gallery are available by prior arrangement only. Erazem Lueger was a 15th-century robber who, like Robin Hood, stole from the rich and handed it over to the poor. During the wars between the Hungarians and the Austrians, Lueger holed up Predjama Castle.
In the autumn of 1484 the Austrian army under Gašpar Ravbar, the governor of Trieste, attacked the castle, but it proved impregnable for months. All the while Erazem came and went as he pleased…
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Križna Cave
Križna Cave, about 7km north of Snežnik Castle and a kilometre or so after you turn off the main road from Cerknica, is one of the most magnificent water caves in the world. It is 8.8km long and counts 22 underground lakes filled with green and blue water as well as a unique 'forest' of ice stalagmites near the entrance. The dry part of the cave, which includes a short boat ride, can be toured without booking in advance.
To go as far as the Kalvarija chamber by rubber raft via 13 lakes (around €25 to around €29), you must contact the guide named Alojz Troha, in Bloška Polica (house No 7) near Grahovo, in advance (041-632 153). It's a four-hour tour if you elect to do…
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Pivka Cave and Black Cave
Pivka Cave and Black Cave - the most popular caves after Postojna - are about 5km to the north. The entrance is in the Pivka Jama camping ground. You reach the 4km-long system by descending more than 300 steps. A walkway has been cut into the wall of a canyon in Pivka Cave, with its two siphon lakes and a tunnel, and a bridge leads to Black Cave. This is a dry cavern and, as the name implies, its dripstones are not white. A tour of both caves takes about two hours.
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Planina Cave
Planina Cave 12km to the northeast near the unpredictable Lake Planina, is the largest water cave in Slovenia and a treasure-trove of fauna (which includes Proteus anguinus). The cave's entrance is at the foot of a 100m rock wall. It's 6.5km long, and you are able to visit about 900m of it in an hour. There are no lights so take a torch. Many parts of the cave are accessible only in low water or by rubber raft.
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Škocjan Caves
The immense Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1986, is a highlight of any trip to Slovenia. With relatively few stalactites, the attraction here is the sheer depth of the awesome underground chasm, which you cross by a dizzying little footbridge. This involves a shepherded two-hour walking tour and ends with a rickety funicular ride.
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Otok Cave
Otok Cave, some 1.5km northwest of Postojna Cave, is very small (632m in length) and the tour only takes about an hour, but its stalagmites and stalactites are very impressive. There's no electric lighting, so you'll need a torch, and the temperature is 8°C.
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Pivka Cave and Black Cave
Pivka Cave and Black Cave - the most popular caves after Postojna - are about 5km to the north. The entrance is in the Pivka Jama camping ground. You reach the 4km-long system by descending more than 300 steps. A walkway has been cut into the wall of a canyon in Pivka Cave, with its two siphon lakes and a tunnel, and a bridge leads to Black Cave. This is a dry cavern and, as the name implies, its dripstones are not white. A tour of both caves takes about two hours.
reviewed