Domica, the model cave - In Slovakia depths (1/3)

April 29th, 2016

Don’t be afraid, I didn’t visit all Slovakia’s caves, or I will still be there visiting… There are around 3 800 caves so obviously not all of them can be visited. Only 14 can be visited and only 3 out of 14 (the one from the Slovakian Karst) are designated on the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995.

How to choose? Moreover, caves are not usually my cup of tea and my visit priorities. Who, what to trust? Professors gave me advices but aren’t they too patriotist with their country? Finally, I preferred choose the ones I thought were the most original. And so, during my trip, I have visited one cave said to be the most beautiful of the country (Domica), an aragonite cave and an ice cave (Demanovska).

Day 1

If Domica cave would have to work, without any doubt it would be a model. With its draperies of ocher stones, its diaphanous Styx river running, its pagoda-shaped stalagmides, it has nothing to envy to a model beauty nor it endless silhouette. The cave entrance is only 2 km away from the Hungarian border, but it runs 5 km in Slovakia and 20 km in Hungary (Baradla).

For now, I had not seen anything yet. I am in the bus to the cave from Plesivec, a city at 114km south-west of Presov (2h of train). The countryside is made of small denivelations, where clump of grass is growing everywhere. Here and there, I saw some limestone and sediment cluster and then entering in the Slovak Karst National Park.

I had foresight and didn’t visited the cave during week-end to avoid the crowd. When the bus stopped at “Domica” station, it was so desert I first thought I did a mistake. No parking area or souvenir shops as I saw at the Postojna cave in Slovenia 5 years ago. But really, Domica is here, half world away from its slovenian counterpart. On the road side, there is an old angular, concrete sovietic era building but I was wrong about what’s inside. At the counter, open 15 min before the visit, the queue is as small as a deer. And so, we will be only 6 for the noon tour.

Taking a boat underground

Stones draperies in Majko room

What is original at first sight is the boat tour in the middle of the cave’s wall, 15 min after the beginning of the visit. However, it’s possible only around May, as my Slovakian geography professor told me. The rest of the year, there is not enough water to take the boat. Before that, to sail underground, I only knew the Padirac gulf in France.

There are 2 things I will always remember: first the temperature around 10°C every year, strengthened by 90% moisture and second the silence, omnipresent, hearing drops falling in water, any movement of shoes on the ground, rocks on the concrete. And I add a third, more surprising one: a dry, black cluster formed in the middle of stones pillars in the Indian pagoda room. What is that? To understand, you should know that 16 species of bat live in the cave and, as any living organism, sometimes they need to poop… In ornithology terms, these poops are “guano”. And I knew that from my English information flyer, as the tour was again made in Slovakian!

Deadly hiking

Afterward, I should have come back to Plesivec train station by bus, instead of walking just because I wanted. A road sign said that it takes 3 hours on foot to reach the station. It was 1:30 pm, my train was at 5:23 so I had a lot of time ahead.

And then I run through this empty, ruin-shaped countryside I was previously looking from the bus window. And fastly, I lost the yellow-tagged trail, make a detour, cross a small town (Kecovo) I should have meet. I tried to find my initial trail by taking non-tagged paths through the forest. And it took me 1 hour and a half running through beeches forest. 4 hours later, I saw Plevisec and its train station but it was too late: the train left 15 min ago. The next one is in 2 hours.

Plevisec train station at night between 2 trains: 5:23 pm (I missed) and 9:23 (I took)

Starving, I came back to the citycenter to eat in a pizzeria (the only one in the city). When I came back at the train station (on time! ), I learned that the train at 7:23 pm will not be there today by the train station staff who showed me the timetable. The next one will be at 9:23pm, in two hours.

The night is coming, and the freshness with it, as fresh as the cave at noon. I’m waiting, stuck at the water closet radiator, reading “The Miserables”, because the restroom was under renovation! When the train finally came with its red wagons, I couldn’t believe it! Finally, after 4 hours waiting time, I sat in a comfortable blue seat! At Kosice, I have a correspondence and had to wait 30 min… But what’s 30min after waiting so many hours! I took a Railjet (Czech company) mouse-grey high-speed train to Prague with a stop at Presov, my city.

When I turn off the light of my bedroom at the 16 Bajkalska street, it was 1:00 am.

Photo gallery