Slovenia: Postojna Cave

Postojnska, August 2013

Jama means cave

"It is so hot today. Why do I need to bring my jacket?" I was a bit cranky because of the heat wave and about to put my jacket back to the car.

"Dear, I'm pretty sure you will need it. The temperature inside is 8°C and the walking tour takes nearly two hours. Believe me, you will thank me later." The guide smiled at me.

I looked at her skeptically as I shrugged my shoulders and followed her to the entrance of Postojna Cave which is more than 20 kilometres underground tunnels. It is the largest cave in the “classic karst” and the most visited show cave in Europe.

let's hop on the train

Postojna cave is the only one in the world which offers a unique and adventurous ride with special train. I hop on the train with a big grin on my face as I've always loved trains. The train started to accelerate taking us through the spectacular underground arches, deep down into the cave. The train speeding up and I started shivering as the cold air blew my face. Well, I was glad I did bring my jacket otherwise I'll be freezing cold. I let out a squeal as the train was cornering at high speed. It was so much fun, it felt like descending into the centre of the earth on a roller coaster.

and the journey begins

please ignore the blur picture, the train is getting faster

and faaaasterrrrr.....yippieeeee!

the walking path

By the end of the ride I got off the train and gathered with the English speaking group before we started the 5 km walking tour. The cave is like a massive well lit hall. The lighting adds the beauty of those natural wonders. It's hard to believe that the fascinating structure was formed by tiny drops of water for millions of years.

hi there :)

As I walked deeper into the cave, I was dazzled by those glistening stalactites and stalagmites abounding in a variety of shapes, colours and age. The cave is divided into some halls named after the characteristics of flowstone. Such as the hall of tubes, where white, needle-thin, transparent tubes hang from the ceiling. The ceiling of the hall reminds of rock rain, and is also called Spaghetti hall. The white hall got its name after extremely white flowstone and white stalactites made of pure calcite with almost no admixtures. While other is called  the red hall due to its reddish colour of the flowstone.

the Spaghetti Hall or Rock Rain

stunning textures

looks like a giant ice cream cone to me :p

the Olm or human fish (on poster)

At the end of the foot path, there's a giant aquarium with some olms or human fish in it. It's some kind of salamander and called the 'human fish' by the locals because of human-like skin tone. There were too many people swarming around the aquarium and I was too short to peek out from behind their body. So I couldn't say 'Hello' and take pictures of Mr. Olm. Luckily there's a big poster of the olm next to the aquarium, so I snap the poster instead *grin*

some restaurants outside

Where's the most beautiful cave you've ever explored ?