Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Lake, a sump at the end of the cave where it disappears. It surfaces again - this time as the
Timavo River - at Duino in Italy, 40km to the northwest, before emptying into the Gulf of
Trieste.
Sights
Škocjan Caves
(Škocjanske Jame; 708 21 10;
www.park-skocjanske-jame.si
; Škocjan 2; adult/child
€15/7; 10am-5pm)
Visitors walk in guided groups from the ticket office for about
500m down a gravel path to the main entrance in the Globočak Valley. Through a 116m-
long tunnel built in 1933, you soon reach the head of the so-called
Silent Cave
, a dry
branch of the underground canyon that stretches for 500m. The first section, called
Paradise
, is filled with beautiful stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones that look like
snowdrifts; the second part (called
Calvary
) was once the riverbed. The Silent Cave ends
at the
Great Hall
, 120m wide and 30m high. It is a jungle of exotic dripstones and depos-
its; keep an eye out for the mighty stalagmites called the Giants and the Organ.
The sound of the Reka River heralds your entry into the
Murmuring Cave
(Šumeča
Jama), with walls 100m high. To get over the Reka and into
Müller Hall
, you must cross
Cerkevnik Bridge,
some 45m high and surely the highlight of the trip. Only experienced
speleologists are allowed to explore the 5km of caves and halls that extend to the northw-
est of the bridge.
Schmidl Hall
, the final section, emerges into the Velika Dolina (Big Valley). From
here you walk past
Tominč Cave
, where finds from a prehistoric settlement have been
unearthed, and over a walkway near the
Natural Bridge
. The tour ends at a funicular lift
that takes you back to the entrance.
The Škocjan Caves are home to an incredible amount of flora and fauna: 250 varieties
of plants and 15 different types of bats; your guide will point out mounds of bat guano.
The temperature in the caves is constant at 12°C so bring along a light jacket or sweater.
Good walking shoes, for the sometimes slippery paths, are recommended.
If you have time before your tour, follow the path leading north and down some steps
from the reception area for 200m to the lookout (signposted 'Razgledišče/ Belvedere').
Extending before you is a superb vista of the Velika Dolina and the gorge where the Reka
starts its subterranean journey.
CAVES
Vilenica Cave
CAVE
