Skocjan, Slovenia

Today was our jaunt up into Slovenia to see the World Heritage Skojcan caves. The trip did not start well as we had to traverse the "little intersection from hell" when leaving the hotel. All 6 streams of traffic were being fully utilized so we made the snap call "Let's turn right because it is easy and then we U-turn". Many miles later having transited the Opatijia one-way system, we completed the execution of the U-turn.

Achieving motorway was easy after that and before we knew it we were nearing Slovenia. But wait, there is a toll station and we never saw a way to get a toll ticket when getting on. It turns out this is toll strategy B where you just pay 7 "Kuna Matata's (our new name for the Croatian kuna) for the privilege of using the motorway. Toll passed and then it was immediately the Croatian passport control (quick glance and motion us on) followed by a no-man's land of striped pavement lanes and the Slovenian immigration. At least these folks are serious and gave us passport stamps.

Roads immediately devolved to 2 lanes which turned out to be fine. After Ilirska Bistrica, we got off on even more side roads. Lovely country, well kept houses, almost no traffic... loving the driving here. Slovenia is in the Euro currency market so we were living off some left over Euros. We found the Skocjan cave complex easily and opted for the classic tour (1.5 hours) and the new self-guided tour (another 1.5 hours). Tours leave every hour on the hour so we didn't have long to wait. The tour was split among two guides: one for Slovak and Italian speakers and ours for English and German speakers.

The cave tour has a silent part (no running water) and a noisy part where the River Reka (meaning River River in translation) flows underground through the cave. The first part is impressive enough because of the size of the chambers. The second part is just incredible. You are hundreds of feet above the river but in a cave whose ceiling may be an equal distance above you. Part way along the tour, you cross this bridge that spans the chasm over the river far below in semi-dark. I was just waiting for the Balrog to leap out and feeling a little under-prepared. No photography allowed but I can see how it would spoil the effect and disturb the flow of the tour. I did find a picture on the web that captures the essence of the cave and the bridge so I've added it here. Go see this cave. I've not seen any others to rival it.

At the end of the first part of the tour, we set off on the second part, a self-guided tour. This is a mixture of caves and forest trails with waterfalls. Quite lovely and I think we may have been the only ones from the main tour to do the whole thing. The elevator out of the massive collapsed doline (bloody great hole in the ground to use a non-technical term) was favored by most but we slogged our way to the top and were glad we did -- lovely woods to hike in.

The return trip from Slovenia to the hotel was easy.