Sunset over Croatia

We awoke to dry, if bracing, sunny weather and headed out to the Postojna Caves whose proximity had determined our arrival at this site. It felt a bit silly to go underground now it was dry after our wet walk yesterday but on finding the caves were a balmy 7 degrees C inside (significantly warmer than outside) we didn’t feel so bad after all! They were INCREDIBLE. Just WOW. Really. INCREDIBLE. They put us on an electric train to drive us 2km into the cave network and even this route was covered with more richness of Stalagmites and Stalactites than I’ve ever seen in a dedicated grotto before. By the time that stopped we were 100m underground. The cavern was large and very, very long and COVERED, I mean ABSOLUTELY COVERED in incredible rock formations. I usually blether away to my companion on these occasions but I was spellbound silent for at least the first hour, the tour was about 2hours long- it was THAT big and the tourists only got to see a part of what is there. Just WOW. Photos did little for the immensity of the formations against which any human architectural endeavour just look crude and pathetic. Truly, truly stunning. I’d strongly recommend doing an Images Google search on Postojna Caves.

From here we carried on south through Slovenia towards the Croatian boarder. Seeing this beautiful country cloud free for the first time I really felt we’d not given it a fair chance- there were snow capped peaks rising on the side horizon and glorious wooded hills. At the caves we had picked up a postcard of the Bohinj area we had been at yesterday and that looked gorgeous too, it’s a shame the weather had completely obscured it. Onwards though, crossing into Croatia just north of Rijeka and veering off east down the coast. We contemplated going west to Pula from where we could get the boat across to Venice for the day but it looked like a long and expensive diversion so decided against it. As we investigated one campsite after another we began to get worried- they were all shut for the winter. Eventually we headed up into the hills and found a nice quiet track on which to spend the night. If we need to stay in hotels for the rest of Croatia we won’t be here long so fingers crossed more places will be open in the warmer south. In the meantime our spot and drive to it afforded spectacular views as the sun went down on Croatia and the sea and islands beyond.