Today, I took a side trip to visit the Unesco listed Skocjan caves, near Italy. A shortish 1 1/2 train ride got me to the town of Divaca and a free bus took me to the caves. I bought a ticket for the next tour. Imagine my disgust, when tour group after tour group arrived. There were several hundred people waiting for the 11am tour. We walked about 500m to an artificial entrance. They have actually have drilled a passageway into the cave to enter.
It was at this point in time, I was told no photos. I asked why and was told the flash would ruin the cave. I said I’d use no flash and was told, no and my photos would be black. I explained that someone like myself knows how to take photos and a flash would be useless in the big caves anyway. Still No, so I told them when I write my travel articles, I will recommend that people do not come and visit here. Still didn’t work.
Church above the caves
So no photos of the cave. Really there was very little cave as you’d know it. It was ok, but nothing spectacular. What was spectacular was the underground canyon that was over 100m high, with a river in the bottom. No camera flash would have worked here at all. I’d have got some great photos, but alas still i was told no. Then I saw a flash go off and was told she could do nothing as it was not her tour group.
It was a really nice place though. Shame the service to get lunch was woeful and I never got served, all the tour groups beat me there. Well those that took the express elevator out of the caves did. Don’t worry about my non flash photography, when you drill holes into the caves to walk in and an elevator to leave!!!
River flowing out of the caves
There is another cave nearby that has a train running through it! I might visit it depending on its photography policy. A photo tells a thousand words and I’d have never visited half the places I have if I didn’t see a photo or two.
So my rant is over for the day. I did get a cheap train ticket to Budapest for 29 euros next week.