During a trip to Slovenia last year I visited Postojna Cave, the country’s most popular natural attraction and the only karst cave system with a railway, which was built more than 140 years ago. The cave itself is more than two million years old and was formed by the Pivka River.
The cave railway. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Cave tours take about an hour and a half, during which you get to see five or six kilometres of the cave. The tours are guided but not rigidly so.
Part of the tour is done by train and just over a kilometre is on foot. Visitors need to walk up a 200-metre-long path with a 20 per cent gradient, and then make a similar descent. The footpath is made of slip-resistant concrete and is easily accessible.
It is also suitable for prams and strollers and is conditionally suitable for mobility-impaired visitors, although they are generally advised to tour the cave by train only.
The amazing tourist train takes you to the underground network of karst corridors, galleries and halls. The oldest stalagmite is 16 metres high and is known as the Skyscraper. The cave’s symbol is a five-metre-high crystal-white stalagmite called the Brilliant. The vastness of the cave is mind-boggling.
The more hidden parts of the 24-kilometre-long cave system can be visited as part of specially arranged adventure tours. Some of the tours require a good level of physical fitness and previous caving experience.
The cave has a constant temperature of 10 degrees Celsius so you need to be dressed for cold conditions. The journey to Postojna from the capital, Ljubljana, takes less than an hour.
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