Most images are approximately 683 x 1024 pixels in size, numbers in front of picture descriptions are serial numbers of the original photo files. Event participants who contributed to the making of these pictures (family names are as of 1967): Miran Saje, Meta Štoka, Radojka Verčko, Mojca Zaletel, Sinja Zemljič, Bojana Žokalj - Boja, Matjaž Vodušek, Jelka Skitek, Mišo Vidmar. Flowers in the pictures 43898 and 43920 were determined by dr. Luka Pintar and Daniel Rojšek - Danč.
All the pictures photo and copyright (c) Primož Jakopin - Klok 2019 except 43918 where the credits go to Miran Saje.
43896. It all looked ship-shape at the beginning. The cave was supposed to be easy to find, 500 m north of Pliskovica village, not far from the western of the two field tracks heading north, according to the map at www.geopedia.si. In the picture: Mišo, Sinja, Radojka, Matjaž, Meta, Miran, Mojca and Boja.
43897. After 5 minutes walk the trail was supported by a large dry stone wall, partly crumbled. It was the hot spot for the trip but we found it out only about an hour later.
43898. Potentilla australis, južni petoprstnik in Slovenian (no suitable English name)
43899. When we reached the paved road at the junction to the village Kosovelje, about a mile to the north of Pliskovica it turned out that the proverbial fact on how cavers usually have poor cave-finding capabilities, is also true for the author of this page. After consulting all the Internet resources which managed to load in reasonable time on Meta's, Matjaž's (best results) and the photographer's smartphones it became clear that there are not two, but many more trails heading north (mostly overgrown) and that very likely the cave is not to the east, but to the west of the trail we took. So the party was returning using the trail, while the author scanned all the dolines to the west of the trail, up to a distance of about 200 m. There were many and most of them were overgrown with thorny bush and bramble. Yet persistence often pays off and half an hour later he could shout to the party that the cave was found. It was 100 m to the west of the wall two pictures back, quite close to the village. In the picture: Miran, Meta, Boja, Radojka and Sinja on the way from the trail to the cave.
43900. Cave used to be a well known tourist destination decades ago - now nature adopted the spiral staircase down the entrance shaft as its own. Meta, Sinja and Radojka on top ...
43901. ... and at the bottom, with Miran and Mojca
43902. Mišo, Mojca and Sinja in the entrance hall, with Radojka at the bottom of the descent
43905. Miran, Meta, Radojka, Matjaž, aMojca, Boja, Sinja and Mišo on a heap of soil, at the bottom of a large chimney, which leads up into ...
43903. ... the second, abyss-type entrance of the cave.
43906. Five of us descended into the lower part of the cave, after the chimney. Here Mišo and Sinja are seen at a low bulky stalagmite, on top of which three tiny ones started to grow.
43907. Meta and Miran discussing how to best capture the white calcite wall behind them.
43908. A whirlwind phone camera shootout followed ...
43909. ... and finally came to a successful end ...
43910. ... with this (traditional digital) SLR camera photo of the wall with Sinja, Meta, Mišo and Miran.
43912. More phone camera experimenting, aided with a 10 W LED floodlight ...
43913. ... here used by Mišo to illuminate a richly ornamented side calcite garden.
43915. Admiring a large calcite pillar in the middle of the tunnel, a suitable venue ...
43917. ... for a friendly embrace
43918. The photographer in the cave entrance, as seen by Miran.
43919. Meta and Mišo on the grass trail, westbound
43920. Naked-stalked globe daisy, Globularia nudicaulis, golostebelna mračica in Slovenian
43921. Meta, Mišo and Sinja on a meadow, under the late afternoon sun. We chose to go west, passage to the paved road and from there south to Pliskovica seemed to be the shortest, timewise.
43922. Sinja and Meta, back in the village, resting on a stone fence, against the setting sun
Picture below photo and copyright (c) Radojka Verčko 2019, description by Radojka Verčko and Primož Jakopin. Published with permission.
1. Preparations for the cave visit were thorough and picturesque: Meta and Primož
A Trip to Pliskovica on Karst, April 2 in the Morning
Pliskovica na Krasu, April 2 in the Evening and April 3
This page, text and photos by Primož Jakopin, except where indicated otherwise;
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Page initiated on April 7, 2019; date of last change: April 11, 2019.
URL: http://www.jakopin.net/primoz/slike/2019/PJ20190402b_en.php
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