August 29th
We got up really early and packed up all of our things! (again!) and started driving north along the edge of the Adriatic Ocean. It was an incredible road twisting and turning back and forth along the coast line. This area is known as the Velebit and has been inhabited for over 10,000 years. Many different peoples lived, farmed, fished and traded up and down this coast line.
We continued north until we hit the border with Slovenia. Although we had to get stamped out of Croatia and into Slovenia, it didn't take too long to cross.
As soon as we crossed into Slovenia the scenery began to change again. The Ocean was gone, the dry rocky cliffs were gone. Forests and valleys, farms and mountains began. Slovenia is a beautiful country.
We found a nice little campsite called Camp Plana near a little town called Postojna. This place is very famous as it has the largest cave in Slovenia. It is also famous as it was one located in a valley that was very crucial during World War 1& 2 as well as during the Slovenian war of Independence. It is sometimes hard to imagine as you look around now and see beautiful peaceful farms and villages that there was so much fighting all through this area, so many times, over and over again.
August 30th
Today we got up and went to the Postojna cave area. This area is famous for the cave, as well as for the things that live in the cave.
The cave is huge, over 24 km of cave have been explored so far. It is in the Kars region of Slovenia, which is where the name Karst some from. Karst refers to the dissolution of the limestone rock by running water. This dissolution forms caves, and in the caves often stalagmites, stalactites and columns form as well as other amazingly beautiful features.
In order to see the cave we got to travel by Train! This cave is the only cave to be able to take you inside by train. After the train dropped us off 2.5 km inside the cave we took a tour through a beautiful part of the cave that was 1.5 km long. Then we got back on the train and they took us back out again.
This cave was first described in the 1700, although people and animals have been using and living in this cave for thousands of years.
Neanderthal artifacts, cave bear and wooly rhinoceros bones, as well as modern human remains have all been found in the cave. It became a pioneering site for speleobiology, the study of the living organisms in the cave. An incredible organism called the Olm (Proteus anguinus) was found and originally it was called the baby dragon. It is a type of blind, colourless exclusively aquatic salamander. It was incredible to see. They have a few of them in dark aquariums that we could go and look at. They also had all sorts of other cave species that were on display. Crickets, shrimp, insects, fish and bats all live in the cave system.
The final display that we saw was all about the human habitation from the cave. They had displays of the various bones and artifacts from the human habitation that had gone on in this area over the past 100,000 years. One of the most incredible artifacts was the neanderthal flute that was found. It was recreated in modern form and was played for us to hear.
If you want to hear a recording of the flute please go to the Slovenia page and listen to the recording.
Later that day after we had seen all the cave displays we went to visit the near by Castle of Prejama. It is a cave castle, built right into the cave.
It was built like this both for protection and for location. It is at an interesting location as the range of hills directly in front are the edge of the watershed. The rivers to the south and west flow about a hundred km to the Adriatic. The rivers to the north and east flow thousands and thousands toward the Black sea.
Predjama Castle was a neat castle to walk around, we got audiotours and everyone was able to listen to the tour of the castle them selves.
The most famous inhabitant of Prejama Castle was Erasmus of Lueg, he was the son of the a governor and a an infamous robber baron. He killed a commander of the army and was chased back to Predjama castle where he hid. He was able, by using the hidden caverns in the castle to stay quite fine inside the castle for months and months, until he was betrayed from a servant. One day, while he used the toilet they sent a bomb up and through the wall of the toilet and he died. I thought that was sad, but Brendan and Liam thought that was a hilarious way to die.....
We walked all over the castle and we were pretty tired. That was a huge day!!
August 31
The last day of August and we decided to do some exploring around our camp site. This area was well known as a site that saw alot of fighting in many different wars. There was a famous hill that has been used as a fort, and a lookout for thousands of years so we decided to head up and had an incredible hike. It turned into a 10km morning hike, but we all did really well, even Liam who doesn't really like hiking anymore. The hill is called Silentabor. and as we walked up you could see the earthworks that were put in place during WW1 and WW2. The view from the top was incredible.
After we headed down we went to the Park of Military History. It was an incredible museum, filled with relics and reminders of the wars that have been fought on this soil.
There was a full description and tribute to the Slovenian war of Independence. It was very interesting for my parents as they were old enough to remember the war very well.
We were also able to see the huge collection of military tanks, guns, planes, and other hardware. We all though it was really interesting to see all of the pieces of war machinery.
Liam was so excited to fine the bridge tank machine. He had read a story about huge machines and as soon as Liam saw it he ran up to it ans started telling us how it worked. If you look at the picture with Liam you can see the top will flip over and open out to form a bridge that can be used when bridges are broken. Brendan was quite upset about the poor red car and was worried about the person who lost their car.
We learned that the Slovenian Army is a very well trained and active armed forces and take part in may UN and NATO missions now.
After another great day it was time to head home.
Talk to you soon!!!
Tia and Mari
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