Škocjan caves

Our first stop in the Southern part of Slovenia were the Škocjan caves. Together with the slightly bigger Postonja cave they form one of the bigger and most significant karst caves in the world. Therefore, the Škocjan cave was declared an UNESCO world heritage site. The visit to the caves was organized as a guided tour and we were surprised by the amount of people waiting at the ticket office to start an underground trip. Luckily we were quickly divided over multiple groups, each with their own guide.

Inside the cave we were not allowed to take any pictures (one of the main reasons is that the flash scares the animals which that are living in the cave - bats, beetles,...). Anyway, we were both amazed by the beauty and grandeur of the underground world. We walked through huge halls with massive stalactites, stalagmites and impressive columns. Some of these structures grow only 1 cm each 100 years. It’s quite difficult realizing how old these structures are and how much time must have passed before the water solubilized these huge halls. It’s a completely different timescale.

We continued deeper into the cave and crossed a 50m high bridge over a steep canyon where the river still flows. It felt like you were in a scene of a movie (like walking in the mines of Moria in Lord Of The Rings).

More towards the end of the trip we saw a couple of bats flying around and we could see where the river came back above ground.

It was an impressive trip!Read more