JULY 14 - Start the day early by walking into town, buying a train ticket for our next destination in a few days, and collecting a rental car we will use for the next two days. The bus station is already hopping at 7:30, backpackers cramming into the regional destination buses.
We head southwest to the town of Postojna, on the road to Piran and Trieste. This part of Slovenia is the ‘Classical Karst Region’, which refers to the thick limestones deposited here in the Cretaceous (145-66 million years ago). It has given its name to the distinctive geology called ‘karst’, in which limestones are dissolved by water over time and develop underground rivers, caves, collapse features, and steep valleys.
We visited a karstic cave system in the Czech Republic on Day 82. The one is Postojna is significantly larger, at least the portion available for viewing. We saw about 3 km of a 24 km long cave system.
The tour of the cave was about 1.5 hours and involved a 10 minute underground train ride, following by a long footpath with guide. This is a very popular tour, they push at least 400 people through here per hour. This is touted to be the only underground cave train ride in the world. Having worked underground in a gold mine and ridden ore trains for two years, I think that claim is splitting hairs a little.
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After the cave itself, we went to the vivarium. This was a big hit with Odette, and the only zoo I’ve been to that is housed inside a cave. The biggest animals here are the olms, or cave salamanders, which can grow up to 30 cm in length and live up to 100 years. They are blind and very sensitive to light, hence impossible for us to get photos of. When they were first seen by people (after having been washed out of caves during floods), they were fancifully thought of as baby dragons. At the time there was no understanding that some animals live in complete darkness.
FUN FACT: Postojna Caves hosts the largest biodiversity of any cave system in the world. It even has the only known cave mollusk.
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On to the Karst Museum, with plenty of interactive stuff for kids (and adults) to learn about caves. There is plenty to do in there for an hour or so.
Leave Postojna Caves and drive for about 9 km up a valley to Predjama Castle. The Slovenian word for cave is ‘jama’, so this refers to the fact that the castle was built in the mouth of a cave.
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