Križna Jama

Slovenia is cave country, and its most popular caves collectively attract over one million visitors each year.  Last Sunday, we chose the less popular Križna Jama to explore, which is about an hour south of Ljubljana.  The cave is quite a bit more rugged than the caves at Postojna and Škocjan (no lights, stairs, railings, signs), so it was just us, our flashlights, a tour guide, and a big hole in the ground.  We learned that back in the day, bears that weighed as much as one ton (!) lived in the cave and found their way around solely by sense of smell, and we learned that of the forty-five species that live in the cave now, only two live out of the water.  We also took a small raft across one of the forty-five underground lakes in the cave and found out the true meaning of total darkness when the guide had all of us turn off our flashlights (it was a bit unnerving to say the least).  All in all, a very cool experience.