We just hope we can do this uber epic Green adventure justice here and describe some of the sensational Green secrets you will discover on the 5 hour rubber boat trip into the biggest water cave in Green Slovenia!

Yes folks, this Green adventure really is that good.. It is like going to another planet or a different world..

You will see Baby Dragons swimming past you by the dozen.. you will row a tiny rubber dingy along an underground river with your family or mates.. you will discover 7 underground post WW1 Italian bridges..

 

You will explore an enormous secret chamber Dripping with Dripstones..

AND ALL this in a cave many of you have still not even heard of.. just 14 mins from the Lodge.. that is Green Slovenia Baby!

So when we say the Planina Cave 5 Hour Boat Trip is epic, we really do mean epic.. and if it has wet your whistle for this particular Green Adventure, please read on.. 

 

Why is the Planina Cave so Amazing?

• The Planina cave is the largest water cave in Green Slovenia..
• It is the only cave in Europe where you can see two rivers crashing into each other to make a new river..
• It is also a MASSIVE tap feeding the Planina Disappearing  Lake..
• The new river formed in this amazing cave is called the UNICA and is one of the seven rivers that form the River of 7 Names..

 

• We call this cave the Cave with the Cloud as you can often see mysterious clouds forming inside the massive cave mouth..
• We also call this cave the Baby Dragon Cave..
• Did we also mention it has about one thousand Baby Dragons living there and you might just get to see one!
• The cave mouth has about 50 metres of solid Karst rock above and you can walk inside this huge entrance any time.. It feels like you are inside a massive natural cathedral..

 

• You will find out in the 5 hour adventure there is a massive secret chamber at the end of this cave..
• After WW1, during the Italian occupation of south west Slovenia, the Italian army built 7 bridges along the river and tried to blast through to connect with the Postojna cave.. but fortunately nature won..

 

 

Why Haven't I heard of the Planina Cave?

It is really not your fault and there are several reasons.. But we just hope you get this info while you are still planning your adventures to the most beautiful country in Europe or at the very least while you are here and still have a chance to go see it!

Most visitors to the European capital of caves will know about a huge cave with a kiddies train and maybe a Unesco protected giant and there is a small possibility you might now be confusing this Planina Water cave with another water cave you heard of.. the Krizna cave, which is another spectacular underground adventure..

 

All those caves are really close to the Lodge and there are 30 more show caves you haven't heard about too here that are equally special in their own way and very different indeed.. so you do need to think carefully which cave trips are for you and our honest advice is to try to see as many as you can!

Only one cave here is marketed extensively around the world and part of the Slovenia Merry Go Round tour where you don't have to think too much and just follow the crowd..

 

But that doesn't mean for one swish of a dragon's tail that the others caves are not as good, cos they are.. in our humble opinion the Planina cave is one of the very best show caves in all Slovenia.. therefore Europe!

Some of these caves are run by companies, but most by local cave associations, volunteers or societies.. So think about that.. These caves will certainly have fewer visitors and offer you a totally different underground adventure with LOCAL people who really care about their cave..

 

For some of these caves you just show up at the required hour, for others you will need to contact a local guide to book your tour and some are only open on a Sunday or just over the summer, mainly to protect the bats that live in those caves during the winter.

Planina cave is one of those run by a local cave association and so you need to know the man with the key to the gate to do a tour..

Between May and September the Planina cave does a really fantastic one and a bit hour tour at weekends and Jul, Aug at 5pm every day..

 

We did that smaller tour again last season and it was really excellent, just a few people in the group with a friendly and profesional local guide..

But we had heard from some guests who did the longer 5 hour adventure a couple of years ago with younger kids and loved it, so this longer trip was growing ever larger on our radar..

We had dropped off guests near the cave for hiking and also passed here on E bikes several times to see a small group of people emerging from the cave dressed in colourful uniforms and waving wooden paddles around, so we knew the longer tours were going on, but really did not know what to expect..

 

So on a sunny September day we decided to invite 3 German E Bikers who have become like extra family, staying at the Lodge every September and E Biking all over the place around here, to come with us and do the 5 hour adventure!

We were shocked when we realised they had not yet been to any of the other amazing caves here yet.. so we were thinking, why don't they start with a 5 hour cave extravaganza! 

 

We had done the uberamazing 4 hour Krizna cave expedition, also mainly by boat, a few years ago and it totally blew us away, but for some reason we couldn't visualise how this Planina cave trip would be..

I guess that is how you might be feeling right now about it all too!

 

The Krizna 4 hour Adventure was out of this world and one of the most fantastic things we have ever done.. anywhere.. but just wait for it.. the Planina 5 hour cave adventure was EVEN BETTER!

So how about we grab a few paddles, choose a pair of wellies, go jump in a rubber boat and row up the longest water cave in Green Slovenia!

 

The 5 Hour Baby Dragon Cave Tour..

It is all quite relaxed upon arrival in the small, but perfect Planina cave car park. There is a cavers' cabin in the corner with the stunning Rapunzel's tower looming behind in the background..

You just need to bring your mobile phone to take some piccies and tuck it away in your cavers' dungaree top pocket. DO NOT BRING lots of stuff to worry about when you are in the cave cos you just won't need it!

 

So you get cavers overalls, mainly to protect your clothes from mud, a big wooden paddle.. (protect it with your life).. a helmet with LED light and some rubber boots.

Good to go.. we looked like a bunch of teletubbies as Carlos our friendly guide took time to explain how special the cave was and give some really handy local info before we walked to the massive cave mouth..

The official start of the cave tour is at some locked gates about 100m into the cave, so anyone not on the tour can walk this far anytime to get a feel of this monster of nature..

 

If you do venture into the cave mouth alone, make sure you have your torch on your phone handy as it gets darker the further inside you go and there are puddles as you walk high up alongside the river Unica that flows powerfully out of this cave.

The arched cave roof is just huge and as we said above the whole place is like a massive natural cathedral.

Well today, it was us waiting on the first bridge while Carlos relocked the gate and we excitedley began our tour.

 

The 5 Hour Tour in a Nutshell..

OK so you will follow the same one hour tour route into the cave that walks along a very safe ledge pathway high above the river, until you reach a jagged clliff where you carefully climb down to the river and some rubber boats appear..

You jump in the boats and paddle to the far end of the cave, then climb a ladder up into a secret chamber that is massive and stuffed full of dripstones to do a completely unexpected bonus tour..

Then you go back down the ladder and paddle back with the flow of the river for a final walk out of the cave.. EPIC

 

Now we will fill in all the bits in the middle.. cos this is an all action tour!

By walking the same route as the hour tour it is like getting 2 tours in one, so you see ALL the things the regular 5pm tour participants see, like the mother dragon's head and the sensational confluence where TWO rivers smash into each other to form a new river... amazing!

 

The River of 7 Names..

So the river you first walk up, that is thundering out of the mouth of the cave is the river UNICA and this is a new section of the River of 7 Names, which is a very special river that disappears seven times on it's epic journey through the Karst underground to create it's final overland section, the Ljubljanica river that flows through the heart of Ljubljana! 

Every time the river pops up again on it's journey it gets a new name, but in the Planina cave you get to see the action underground as the PIVKA river flows from the Postojna cave into the Planina cave and crashes into the RAK river that has come from Rakov Skocjan , (another totally epic unmissabubble Karst nature park, that you might not have heard about yet, but simply have to go).

Bingo, hey Presto, more Green Slovenian magic is done and a new river is created!

 

So to be clear the Rak river joins with the Pivka river and becomes the Unica river and you get to see it all happen in front of your eyes..

Remember in Green Slovenia the real magic is all about your senses being tickled, so whilst the underground view here is spectacular and unique, the noise of the water is overpowering as the rivers crash into each other and you gulp the fresh clear cave air and feel very small indeed when the guide instructs you all to turn off your lights for a moment and stand there in silence together amid the chaos of nature all around you!

 

The tour will go up the river Pivka section, which was the one the Italians tried to conquer and the flow of the Pivka river is usually much smoother, so the noise levels go down a notch too..

Now the Pivka river does not usually flow as fast as the river Rak and is full of Baby Dragons, so you we are in the domain of the Baby Dragon and this is where the one hour tour concludes.. with maybe a sighting of a Baby Dragon before the hiking group would turn back and head home.

Well folks.. on the 5 hour tour, we get to go a lot further!

 

The footpath does not go much further now and your guide will explain how the Italian army built more bridges trying to conquer the final 6km or so through to the end of the Planina cave to try to connect with the end of the Postojna cave..

The bit that might cause the most unnecessary pre tour nerves is coming up now.. We had been told by our guests that you have to climb down a cliff and, technically yes, this is what you have to do, but it is not like that at all.

So you reach the end of the cave path and need to get down to the river for the next 4 hours of your 5 hour adventure..

 

Yes, you do need to climb down some jagged rocks, but there is a route down AND you are within a team of other "cavers for the day" with a guide who will help you get down..

This is NOT a place you will get scared if you are scared of heights cos it isn't so high at all, so just go carefully and you will enjoy your achievements!

When you reach the river and the boats you really do need to pay attention and respect what the guide tells and instructs you to do.. simple as that.. if you can't, please do not go..

 

Three of you will get in a boat and the ones at the front and rear will paddle and steer it, so for us 5, our three friends took the first boat and we went with the guide in the next boat, with guide Carlos at the rear, barking instructions to everyone and telling the odd joke.

You do not need an olympic rowing medal, but you do need to be reasonably fit, cos this ride will sting your arm muscles and actually, what a great day of mild exercise to have in your Green holiday schedule!

 

This is really where your adventures begin.. this is NOT a theme park it is real nature, but will feel a bit Indiana Jones as you really do paddle gently upstream to explore this massive cave!

And one of the biggest secret Green bonuses now will be flashes of those little Baby Dragons swimming along in the water right next to you!

 

What on Earth is a Baby Dragon?

There are lots of boring official grown up names for these unique little cave creatures that see no light and therefore are bleached white and can live for up to 100 years and look rather like Baby Dragons!

So their other names are Human fish, Olms and Proteus, but seriously, why on earth wouldn't we call these cute little guys Baby Dragons.. of course they are Baby Dragons!!

But there is an element of legend that became truth to their story.. When there was a massive flood in the Postojna cave many years ago, lots of Baby Dragons got flushed down the river of 7 Names..

 

Well, we now we ALL know that the River Pivka where all these Baby Dragons live, turns into the river Unica and can then take up to 5 days to flow underground to Ljubljana.. SO THIS IS THE SAME RIVER and it is not surprising to us reading this how all these Baby Dragons ended up in Ljubljana..

It scared the living daylights out of the towsfolk of Ljubljana though, to see all these Baby Dragons floating down through the centre of town..

 

Their main concern was if Mamma Dragon would come looking for her babies and be very angry with them indeed! 

The only dragons you will see now in Ljubljana are on the bridges and pathways, but here in the Planina cave you will get to see them in their natural habitat, swimming around, chilling out and having a bite to eat every couple of years or so!

 

Direct light is NOT good for these guys, indeed it is painful for them, so better you just get glimpses of them as you either glide or bunny hop along, (depending on your rowing skills, which we promise will dramatically improve over this trip)!

You will be heavily reminded by the guide in any case, but it is better and possible to shine your headlamp away from the Baby Dragon and still see it swimming next you.. 

There are hundreds maybe thousands of them in this special cave, so this would probably be the one place in the world where a visitor can really get to see them safely and properly in their own environment.. 

 

So you will get used to sharp whispers of "Baby Dragon left" as you glide along, but the main sound down here in underground Karst paradise is what we can least adequately describe with written words..

There will be long periods of TOTAL silence and solitude where the overwhelming power of nature will hit you the most down here..

You will be contemplating the immense beauty and gentle force of nature here without even realising it as you complete the tasks and functions requested of you by the guide and marvel at the different dripstones hanging from the vast ceiling or sticking up out of the water trying to puncture the boat.

 

At times you need to cross noisy rocky rapids so you will get out of the boat with a technique that will become almost perfect by the time you reach the end of the rowing bit.. You will be helping the guide to transition the boat and kit to the next stretch of safe water.

The journey up this cave is magical and accompanied by a human story of the brutal failed attempts of the Italian army to master nature and break through to the Postonja cave..

 

So you will see the 7 bridges they built here in different shapes and forms to try to achieve this and actually these bridges now form a strong part of this whole adventure for you.. being milestones along the way and a strong reminder that man cannot ever really master nature.

Ok, so we warned you to be prepared for your various arm muscles to ache with the rowing, but your cheeks will be aching too by the end of it all!

 

If you have been married then remember the pleasant, but unpleasant feeling at the end of your special day when your cheek muscles ache from all the smiling you have done during the day.. well it will be the same here.

And as for those other cheeks you own, well they will also be aching from sitting on a wooden plank in a rubber boat for several hours too!!

 

The time whizzes by as the Baby Dragons and bridges come and go and you reach ever more beautiful parts of the long cave..

But there is a totally unexpected surprise at the end of the navigable water too, when you get to a stunning cul de sac and you think ok, this is where we turn round and paddle back, well this is Green Slovenia.. so expect the unexpected..

 

The guide will corral the boats onto a little rock shoreline where you will clamber out, tie up the rubber dingys like stallions on the American prairies and start the middle part of your adventure that will surprise and also maybe be even the best part of this adventure for some!

The pace and precision of the guiding is really expert in here with friendly but firm local cavers who know EVERY inch of this cave, but also who deeply care about it too..

 

Now in the middle of the tour is the time when you most need it, so you will be given an energy bar here before you clamber up a rock trail to a ladder that leads up into a secret chamber.. Paradise Chamber..

Green Slovenia has a lot of stairways to heaven.. this is one of them.. (maybe we need to include a stairway to heaven page on our DAYTRIPS section, thinking about it)!

Well, cockadoodledoo, were we in for another big surprise! 

 

You cannot over empthasize the camaraderie, teamwork and sense of achievement you will have for each other just reaching this chamber, even if you do the tour with a bunch of strangers..

By now, the best parts of humanity will be shining bright in the darkness as you will be watching out for each other coming up the ladder, giggling in delight at the treasure trove up here that now completely surrounds you and helping each other navigate the strict mini paths where you can explore Paradise Chamber..

 

For us this was perhaps the biggest surprise of the water tour. Yes, rubber boating, rubber boots, river and Baby Dragons, but not this.. a huge chamber stuffed with stalagmites and stalagtites that just gets bigger and better the more you explore!

Wow and triple wow, we tell you this mainly so you are prepared and know if you have the basic physical attributes to do this, but also to make sure you DO NOT MISS out on doing this amazing tour..

 

But we are still confident that even after reading this and even though now you are a little more prepared, you will still be totally blown away by it all down here underground in a land where you have never been before and you may never go again, but equally will never ever forget!

So that is all folks.. the various aches, numbness and pains will return as you follow the current back down the cave, navigate the rapids and bridges you now expect to see and park those boats for the final hike back into the light..

 

Never will the bright light and collage of greens that bounce and blind you from the massive mouth at the very start of this cave be more pronounced as you reach "civilisation" and enjoy the experience of reentering the world.

In this tiny pocket rocket of a country that has everything that is good about Europe in one small package, you can go day by day to green treasures like the Planina cave and other massive rock monsters that will make you feel very small indeed.. Places that the much larger countries can only dream about having!

 

You will need a full day to do this tour and recover, prob starting at 10am, you will be out  early afternoon and dusted off, buzzing with equal energy and tiredness, but you will need to take time to process it all in your head, rest and maybe have a nice meal later that evening.

In short, if you can take a day in your schedule to do this epic cave trip, then just do it and have a lifetime of remembering what you saw and achieved in a place you had never heard of before you clicked this button!

 

 

How do I book this tour?

So now you know what to expect, you will know whether this trip is for you, maybe just for half your family, whilst the others go off and see another cave or go to the coast or whatever.

It is simple to book the tour.. Phone the man, turn up, do the tour and pay cash at the end of it all. The price per person last season was about €30, but we cannot remember exactly how much and it might change for this year, but will be excellent value for money whatever it is!

 

A few things to remember.. You are NOT booking with a commercial organisation, governement educational instutute or online cinema tickets like at home..

These are real people who care for the cave as a hobby and part time summer job, so you need to take that into account when you call and book.. 

Make sure you check again a little before the tour to be sure you are on the list and the tour is going ahead..

 

And another obvious, but often forgotten factor to think about is you will very probalbly be coming to Green Slovenia in the middle of summer, when the water levels will most likely be at their lowest!

We always recommend the best times to see the full magic of Green Slovenia are April, May, September or October, but understandibly most people still come in the summer school hols..

 

There is nothing else we can do about that, but you must understand that if the water is too low in the cave, then the tour will be off.. fact! Equally if there is heavy rain in the summer the water levels can be too high and dangerous, so again.. the tour will be off!

Slovenia has huge quantities of underground water, rivers and lakes, so it is VERY unlikely your tour will be off, but you do need to understand before that this could happen..

 

This is NOT something you can control or predict 2 weeks, 3 months or one year before, but you can spin the roulette wheel a little more in your favour by visiting Green Slovenia outside the main school holidays if you can!

Anyway, it is ALWAYS worth having a little flexibility in your programme in case tomorrows' 5 hour Planina cave tour adventure needs to switch to Friday or Saturday and DO NOT worry about things outside your control as there are MANY, MANY other amazing showcaves and other Green activities you can switch to if need be..

 

And don't forget about that one hour daily Planna cave tour too, where you might still get to see a Baby Dragon..

So our last tip for the Planina Cave 5 hour adventure is to deffo book ahead as soon as you know your timings.. It is possible, but less likely you can phone the day before to book, so do not leave it to chance..

The Planina Cave Hotline is so hot it has two numbers.. 00386 (0) 413 386 96 or 413 045 88

 

And the final elephant in the room or dragon in the cave to address of course, is the issue of toilet!

The answer is to go before you arrive at the cave and to be sensible how much you eat and drink for breakfast, but nature is nature, so just let the guide know if you must go.. the good news is the 5 hours absolutely flash by, so it feels more like 2 hours!

And kids, yes it's ok.. Parents notoriously over estimate the abilities of their little angels, but this is not a shopping trip that can be aborted half way, so BE SENSIBLE..

If you want us to give you an age, then we will, from what have seen, done and know we would say 14.. the cave will accept younger ones and only you know whether you have a child capable of doing this adventure.. if you have then, wow, they are in for the Green adventure of their young lives!

 

We sincerely hope we have helped you to understand the epic nature and small complexities of one of Green Slovenia's many Green adventures and that if you do get to jump in one of those rubber boats that you have the same uber fantasic experience we had..

For us, it is almost unbelievable that we left it so long before we did this adventure.. ten years after moving here and just 14 mins in the car from the Lodge.. but there is so much to do around here!

You don't have ten years here, maybe two weeks if you are lucky , so we hope that if this might be the tour for you, then do not hesitate!