We got on the road fairly early and after a brief stint on a toll highway and passing by Rijeka and then a silly toll booth that only cost one Euro (and the line up coming the other way must have been 2-3 kilometers long...all for just a Euro!), we hit the border. We were happy that we were heading in the other direction.
Back into the European Union! We all enjoyed the beautiful Slovenian countryside as we cruised towards our destination of Kobarid.
Just before taking a turn to get on a highway, we noticed some signs for a cave nearby. Slovenia is famous for its caves and we decided to check out why after Holly read that this one you got to ride on a train for a couple of kilometers in it! The Postojna Caves ("post-oy-knee-ya") run over 20 kilometers in length with large chambers filled with stalagmites and stalagtites. We got on a small but length train and traveled the couple of kilometers into the cave, in awe of the size of it. After disembarking from the train, everyone assembled at one of 6 different areas with signs for which language you would like to hear the next part of the tour. The guide eventually showed up and explained that the caves had been discovered in 1818 and the first tourists were in there the following year! Now, between the trains and the super nice walkway, they were funneling the visitors through at a Disney-like pace (at 20 Euros a head too). We were told that photography was forbidden but as we walked for about a kilometer through various caverns people snapped away. The only reason that they could be disallowing photography had to be to cash grab more money with postcards and auto-photography that they did as you entered the caves and rode on the train (just like a rollercoaster ride). I took a few surreptitious photos (thinking of you Dad!) but it was tough for many of them to turn out. We spent about an hour and a half in the caves and it was by far the biggest and most impressive I've ever spelunked.
The entrance to the caves:
All aboard!
Inside the caves:
My quick pic of the auto-pic (so I didn't have to buy it):
Arriving in near a town called Tolmin, Holly noticed a paraglider in the sky and so we stopped at the obvious landing zone. Garth chatted to a guy running a “Parataxi”. Wolfgang turned out to be the guy to know. For the next 5 days he picked us up at our campsite to take us to launch.
We tried in vain to find camping gas in Tolmin and then headed about 10 kms down the valley to Kobarid and found Camp Lazar, a place recommended to us by Fedja, a fellow paragliding pilot from the lower mainland in Canada. We arrived, set up camp and then had a dinner at the campsite restaurant. Tomorrow is Garth’s birthday so we hope to go flying and celebrate the occasion.
Arriving at the Kobarid campsite by the river Soca ("socha"):
My first Slovenian beer review:
Garth's beer review:
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