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Slovenia: GeoCaching in the cave Arneževa luknja

Some GeoCaches are located on a very strange and hard to reach places and so was this one. To calculate the coordinates of the cave, we had to solve the riddle with knots. That was done quite a while ago. Today it was time to go on the field and find the cache. We had to explore one of the caves and after 40 minutes of crawling we found it.

Rok struggling through the small hole

Grega in action

 

When you are exploring the caves, you get very dirty 

Arneševa luknja (also Arneževa luknja) – with 815 m the biggest and most known cave in Udin boršt was known as early as in Valvasor times. Valvasor named it Felsen – Grotte bei Duplach (1689). In present times the cave got its name after the local farmer Arneš from Spodnje Duplje. The entrance is very picturesque and carved out of 14 m high conglomerate wall at the end of the little gabled valley in Vogel. The opening is 2.5 m high and 16 m wide. A stream flows from the cave entrance and the locals have been using it as drinking water for centuries. That is why there are concrete water tanks at the entrance. After 20 meters the tunnel narrows significantly. A visitor has to crawl through the dry passage. It opens into a spacious main tunnel. During heavy rains it is impossible to enter the cave because of the proximity of impermeable ground the surface of underground stream rises quickly and fills up the entrance tunnel. The way through the cave leads through or along the stream. In some areas it can be avoided by taking the dry bypass passages. The main tunnel splits into numerous side tunnels and ends after 800 m with siphon. There are no magnificent cave halls or stalactites and stalagmites for visitors to admire. Some smaller halls are adorned by small stalactites and stalagmites, curtains, pasta like shapes and nice white flowstone walls.

Later Nada and me found more GeoCaches, easier ones of course and in the end we attended the Urban Golob memorial evening.

An afternoon cache took us to the confluence of Ljubljanica and Gruber channel.

GeoCaches found:
- Udin Borst by night - The Cave, Mystery, GC573JA
- Počivališče Povodje, GC5CY27
- Hologram Evrope (nano swag), Multi, GC3W8M7
- Kolodvor, GC4VXTP
- Fitness, GC4KD7Y
- Sotocje/ Confluence, GC3CT8V
- Srcna pot/ Heart Way, GC3A0GT

Urban Golob, Slovenian musician, mountaineer and photographer, * May 18, 1970, Ljubljana, † February 26, 2015, Ljubljana