After a couple of years deliberating whether or not to go back to
Slovenija, having heard from local and foreign groups alike that the area
was safe to visit, I decided to take the plunge.
Slovenija has everything to offer. It is a very peaceful country with no sign of the war that ravages through the southern states. The scenery is out of this world - there are mountains and meadows, forests and lakes, enormous caves and villages with olde worlde charm.
Phil Higginson said that he fancied going to do a bit of caving and walking so, on 13 May, we set off to Venice - Italy! The reason for this was simple - a flight to Venice was about 200 Pounds cheaper than a flight to Ljubljana.
The next morning we went downstairs for breakfast - bread & jam and a bowl of gruel (or something). I thought they'd stopped serving that in the 16th century!
From Venice, we travelled by train to Postojna in Slovenija. The most amazing thing was that the train ran ON TIME - to the minute!
I had, I admit, been more than a little apprehensive about going to Slovenija but I was assured that it was peaceful and there was no risk of war - so I decided to believe the Slovenes and go. In fact, the war in Slovenija only lasted for one week in October, 1990. The tactic seems to have been to capture as many Yugoslav soldiers as possible and threaten to torture them! It appears to have worked.
Franc Facija, the camp-site owner, was due to collect us from Postojna on our arrival but, as his car was at the hairdressers (?), he could n't pick us up immediately - so I was forced to wait at the bar in the main square and re-familiarise myself with the local beer!
Soon Franc arrived with Borut - his six year old son - and we headed for the SpeleoCamp at Laze, in the Planinsko Polje. It was just how I remembered it, except that the log cabin he had started in 1990 was now built - to a very high standard - and he had also converted the ground floor of his own house into a bunkhouse with excellent facilities. We settled into the cabin with its wood-burning stove and pine panelling. We could do with something like this in the Dales.
As we were only staying for a few days, we had to fit as much in as possible so, the next day, we went to see a friend of mine in Laze, who was trying to get access to a closed cave. He had managed to get us permission to descend the cave, but we had no access to a car and the cave was about 50km away - so this must wait until another century! After a good talk, and beer, with France we phoned our guide to Krizna Jama - Boris - to arrange a meeting.
So we set off with Boris with a dinghy tied to his car (literally - who needs a roofrack?) Me and Phil got changed into our wetsuits and Boris pulled a pair of waders on over his jeans!
"Aren't you ready, yet?" he asked.
Krizna Jama is huge! Basically, it consists of a main river passage with 22 lakes ending at Kristalna Gora (Crystal Mountain). We were to go to the mid-point, Kalvarija. We set off in our dinghy across the first lake, at the end of which was a pump. We needed this as the boat was a little deflated (not nearly as deflated as on our previous visit though, when Mad Vet Maloney set fire to the bugger with his carbide lamp!) Unfortunately, the pump was locked up so we each took a valve and proceeded to blow!
We paddled along the gallery, stopping only to cross the calcite dams between the lakes. Many large formations were passed including all the usual stuff - columns, curtains and flowstone. We arrived at Kalvarija sooner than expected - having three paddlers had put us into warp-drive several times! Paddling across the lake, we were faced with a row of 20' high columns across the entire width of the passage - what a sight.
Leaving our boat here for a while, a scramble up some boulders led into the roof above Kalvarija where an amazing display of flowstone and straws lay before us. We had a brief stop here for a photo session, along with another one at Kalvarija and then climbed back into the dinghy for the return trip downstream. At the far side of the first lake, we had a look at "Bear Passage" which has quite a collection of fossils of the extinct cave bear. Apparently they all died of starvation during hibernation.
Afterwards, we went to a local bar with Boris for a Pizza. Phil and Boris went for a medium sized one and I, being hungry, chose this bloody great huge thing about 15" across! We also had two premium beers and an ordinary one and the total bill came to about a tenner!
The trail soon leaves the main dirt road and heads into the trees along narrow indistinct paths. The scenery is, to say the least, dramatic. Certainly in Spring, The flowers appear in abundance and Deer and other fauna can often be seen. The forest is also rich in creepy-crawly things. Giant ants and beetles are everywhere, as are wasps, mosquitoes and hornets! Bears and snakes also live here, but we didn't see any of these! In fact, the bears are said to be more afraid of humans than vice-versa.
Walking along the track, the trees cleared. We were in an enormous shakehole staring in disbelief at a limestone cliff with the biggest cave entrance I've ever seen! This, we were sure, was Vranja Jama - Wind Cave. The start of the descent into the shakehole is a steep muddy slope which gives way to boulders going into the cavern. We didn't go far into Vranja as we didn't have lights, but it was certainly impressive.
Eventually we hit a forestry road and, deciding that it was going in the right direction, followed it. We stopped several times to watch a forestry wagon collecting felled trees and eventually reached Laze by late afternoon, collecting many funny looks along the way. It took Phil a while to understand why until he turned round and saw that, instead of my usual beeny hat (I thought that it wouldn't be a good idea near a war zone), I was wearing a square of Pertex on my head in the fashion of Long John Silver! (Well, I do have the leg for it!) I removed it as we approached the bar...
The other walk that we did was around the lower half of the Planinsko Polje. Leaving the SpeleoCamp, we headed towards the village. As we reached the main street, a line of soldiers in full battle dress with bushes growing out of their heads approached from the village.
"What colour uniform does the Slovene army wear?" I asked Phil.
"Dunno, but they aren't shooting at us yet!" came the comforting reply.
We decided to walk on nonchalantly. Passing a farmer, he laughed and said something to us, pointing at the approaching line.
"Ja!", I replied. "Ja!"
He seemed unperturbed by the whole thing so we continued, feeling much easier. Soon the line caught us up. We exchanged "Dober Dan"s, but when the captain (or whatever) continued in Slovene we had to admit to being English. Hearing this, he promptly asked if we would like to join them! We declined the offer!
We walked along the road to Planina, with fantastic views of Zagora and Planinska Gora, a large tree-covered mountain. Planina is a very quaint little village with more than its fair share of churches (no less than 3 of them). The streets are narrow and we were surprised when a large group of children came along the street (presumably on their way home from school) and started saying "Good Morning" to us (in Slovene, of course). Apparently it is still customary to be polite to your elders over there! (Why has it been abandoned in England?)
We continued through Planina towards the tower at the edge of the forest which marks the entrance to Planinska Jama. We walked to the entrance, at the foot of a tall limestone cliff, and went inside the enormous river cave. The water level was surprisingly low and we spent a short while here taking a few photos. A bit further in, we came to a locked gate. Disappointed at this, we left. (I later asked Franc about the gate and he said that it had been there in 1990 and that we'd climbed over it! We're all entitled to be forgetful now and again!)
Setting off back towards Planina, we decided to cross the valley and continue along the far side of the polje. We soon came to the ruin of the castle which the soldiers had been 'attacking'. We stopped at the river Unica for a rest. The sun was scorching and the water looked very welcoming but Phil tried it and jumped back quickly suffering from severely frozen digits! The depth marker by the road bridge caused some concern - the top mark was about 3' above the road level! Apparently, in early spring, the river floods to an amazing extent, filling half of the polje.
After a short break, we continued along a track which looked to be going towards Laze. Unfortunately, we shortly found ourselves on the wrong side of the Unica so we had no choice but to follow it and see where it took us. I knew that it passed through Laze, so we had to come to a road sooner or later! Heading into the forest, the water level suddenly dropped dramatically. Looking down, several interesting looking sinks were located but, as we weren't sure how far we would have to walk back to Laze, we didn't take too close a look. Yet another job for another century!
Eventually, house roofs could be seen and it wasn't long before we were back outside the bar drinking Union Premium - waiting for the shop to open, honest!
All good things must come to an end and this holiday proved to be no exception. We had planned to leave Slovenija on the Wednesday, with a second overnight stay in Venice before flying home on Thursday. However, Franc once more proved to be a hero by finding us an express train from Ljubljana to Venice early on Thursday morning. He would give us a lift to Ljubljana at 6 am. So, on the last night, we decided on an early night. We went upstairs and I was just about to remove my last shreds of clothing when a head appeared through the hatch. It was an Austrian wanting to know if there would be enough room for them to sleep up there, as they had only just arrived. We said that there would be plenty of room but, as we had to get up at 5 o'clock, would they please try to be as quiet as possible?
"Yes", he replied, "but I expect that, if we wake you up, you will wake us up when you get up."
I assured him that there was nothing surer and went to sleep.
At about 3 o'clock we awoke with a start. There were Germans everywhere! We had been attacked earlier in the week by an army of ants crawling across our mattresses so had pulled our beds a foot or so away from the wall. This minimised the amount of floorspace available and the Germans were climbing all over us. Muttering obscenities, I went back to sleep, thinking "Roll on, Five."
I always try to maintain good international relationships, but this called for drastic measures. At 5 o'clock - on the dot - my watch alarm went off. I let it sound for a while before calling "Come on, Phil. Time to get up." The one occupying the bottom end of my bed looked at his watch in disbelief as we proceeded to drag the mattresses back towards the wall (and the ant nest) and generally be slightly less than considerate.
Anyway, the holiday was now at a close as we headed back toward Italy. Back in Venice, it was still as disgustingly smelly as before and we wondered why people call it such a beautiful city. Ah, well it takes all sorts!
Kev Sheard
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