Postojna

Fortunately I didn't roll off the bunk and crush somebody during the night. And there had been comfortable breezes coming through the window.

Stopped by the markets and picked up 1 kg of cherries and some apricots. Ok, I was greedy but the cherries were quite good and it took all day to finish them. The apricots were undistinguished. I decided not to lunch in Ljubljana but caught the 1210 train south. One hour later I was in Postojna. The hostel was easy to find and it was a downhill walk. They at first thought I wanted a regular room until I mentioned dorms. It looked like they were in the process of becoming more of a hotel. While wandering around town, I realised that I could visit the caves, the reason for my stopover, in the evening and be able to leave first thing in the morning, saving some time.

It was an easy walk out of town to the limestone caves in the cool of the late afternoon. They were opened to tourism in the early 19th century, when this area was ruled by Austria. After paying for admission, we were taken to the starting point for our walk in a small train. The air was at a constant, cool temperature of 16 or 17C. There is a lot of damp, so visitors have to wear jackets, and those who do not come prepared can rent one.

The caves are exactly as you would expect, miles and miles of passages decorated with stalactites and stalagmites. I was in karst country again.

You realise that a different time scale operates here when you hear the guide explain that it can take a hundred years to add a couple of cm to a pillar. The right hand formation joined up within living memory. And a careless tourist could damage it in seconds.

Finally we ended up our tour in this large chamber. In the past it had been used for concerts but that practice had been abandoned due to the high humidity, also because the substantial human traffic had been damaging the caves.

Back in the open, I walked back to town and took dinner at the Pizzerija Minutka. One of their house specials, Ponev Minutka (Minutka Pan) comprising turkey with vegetables in wine sauce was quite good and I easily finished it all.

Back in the dorm I discovered that the other lodger was a Portuguese masters student on a week's summer course on geoconservation. He told me that Tasmania was in the forefront of this field. Interesting.