“Whoever wants to rise to the top must seek the base in the cave.” Isha Schwaller de Lubicz

After paying fifteen euros at the border for the motorway sticker valid for one week – the price depends on the vehicle and the duration, the sticker can be purchased at service stations – we start our visit to this new country with something we never do : a paying guided tour – 22€ per person, we don't do things by halves when we get down to it ! But discover Slovenia without sinking into its basement and at least one of its thousands of caves, would have deprived him of the discovery of one of his natural jewels. And then it rains, what better than to take shelter underground !

We have ruled out the visit to the Postojna Cave, the little train they built there giving a bit too much of an amusement park aspect for our taste, to choose the one from Škocjan, located in the same region, in the southwest of the country. Listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, visits must take place at fixed times with guides and photos are prohibited, so i'll try to tell you what we went through.

A walk in the countryside to get away from the center with all the other tourists depresses us a little, we who are used to looking for places off the beaten track ! The flock that we are is divided into four groups : we opt for the last and it is also the last that we take the man-made tunnel to enter the cave where we will travel two and a half kilometers of the seven on which it extends.

Right away, the variations of stalactites and stalagmites are impressive to those who are not used to seeing them. But the first meters are nothing compared to the immensity of the room called the Cave of Silence : douze mille mètres carré, elle est la plus grande d’Europe et possède une stalagmite de quinze mètres de haut. Autant vous dire que même Monsieur qui était des plus sceptiques au début, ne trouve plus ses mots. 😛

Mais c’est en arrivant au dessus de ce qui fait la particularité de Škocjan que je perds les miens : devant nous plonge un canyon sombre et immense, dont l’obscurité est seulement percée par les petites lumières du chemin que nous allons suivre et celles du pont que nous allons emprunter, s’élançant à quarante-cinq mètres de hauteur : tout en bas de cette vaste gorge souterraine rugit le fleuve Reka. L’ensemble a un aspect surréaliste, on se croirait devant une peinture, a movie set, in the boots of the Fellowship of the Ring sinking in the mines of Moria ! It is beautiful and we would like to be able to stay here indefinitely in contemplation.

But we have to continue and we soon go back to the surface where our guide abandons us after having indicated the three possible exits. : a very fast one that goes back to the center, a medium and the long version of two and a half kilometers. After hesitation we opt for the last one and I cannot recommend it enough. New cave dives, waterfalls and the end of the trail leading to a Slovenian village where the sun welcomes us. Une fin de balade superbe que j’ai pu cette fois vous partager en photos tout au long de l’article, quoi que les dernières grottes sont loin de valoir la première plongée ! (Et que les photos de façon générale ne sont pas folichonnes, ça fait longtemps que je n’avais pas sorti l’appareil. 😮 )

Du centre de visite nous parcourons les quelques mètres qui séparent d’un point de vue plongeant sur le fleuve au niveau duquel nous nous trouvions à la sortie des grottes.
Fourbus par cette après-midi de marche, nous confions la fin de journée à Junior : trente kilomètres vers l’Est et juste quelques pas pour admirer les murs du château de Predjama, construit en partie dans une falaise. Then another thirty kilometers to settle in the park of Rakov Škocjan for the night where we have the right to a remarkable sunset between reddening sky, orange clouds and dark green coniferous forests rising in the mist, but also where we will experience one of the coldest nights !

Despite the cold, wake up and breakfast in the heart of the forest on Sunday morning 18 are most enjoyable. Partly warmed up, we are preparing for a walk around the Rak river where we will discover at our expense that the Slovenian markup is not always the best.

We start the walk with a stop on a small natural stone bridge, created by the collapse of part of an ancient cave, before continuing on the trail. When after an hour in the forest we see the village of Rakek in the distance, we realize that we have walked north when we should have gone east ! So here we are unwittingly visiting the Slovenian countryside, crossing the small village of Sivilce where we pick up plums that have fallen on the edges of the paths, before being forced to take a stretch of road to find the track and the river.

Passing by the ruins of a church, we discover what we believe to be the great bridge, then following the markings towards a cave, we meet again with a view of the big bridge, where we were fifteen minutes ago. When I told you that the markup left something to be desired ! Seeing the river below, we end up finding the way down to it and can contemplate the real big bridge on which we realize that we were before – and therefore could not see it !

The walk continues at water level, à travers une prairie verdoyante où percent quelques colchiques ou crocus – pas sûre. We cross in at least two points the quivering sources of the Rak river, watching the water just come out of the ground.

At the end of the hike, we pass several other walkers and note that we are not the only ones to retrace our steps or seem lost, trying to decipher the directions ! But we end up finding our starting point and Junior that we prepare for a short trip of about forty kilometers, head to the country's capital : Ljubljana.

A short video of the flow of the Reka River, which was not without reminding us of the Huka Falls in New Zealand !

What a journey that day ! We thought we had seen a lot, but in these gigantic entrails, the roar of the river (ending in the Aadriatic Sea), enlarged by recent rains, ben… we still feel small.

 

Closing the march of the last group and dragging a little, for a few moments we felt like we were alone (we could have taken a few discrete photos but, respect), before our guide turns off the lights as we go.

 

More than fourteen thousand caves have thus been discovered in the basements of the country., cavers welcome !

 

A small preview ?

 

See ya!