Huda Luknja
Useful Information
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| Image: railroad bridge and cave entrance. |
History
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| 1895 | opened to the public. |
| 1995 | reopened by the local caving club. |
Description
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| Image: Huda luknja entrance. |
Huda luknja is a very old show cave, but today it is only used for
spelunking tours.
The cave crosses a whole mountain underground and ends in a spectacular cave
entrance ensemble.
There is a narrow gorge calle Soteska Hude luknje (Gorge of the Bad Hole)
with a road and railway tracks right in front of the impressive portal.
The railway, now abandoned, crossed a tunnel first, then a bridge across the
cave river right in front of the entrance of Jama Huda luknja (Bad Hole
Cave).
Historic postcards show this ensemble with trains and steam engines in front of
the cave.
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| Image: historic postcard of cave and railroad. |
The name Huda luknja is originally the name of the gorge.
However, the huge entrance is an integral part of this gorge and so it was named
under the same name.
The long known entrance, also called veliki dvor gostišče (Big
Court House), was used since prehistoric times.
Several archaeological remains were found here and in other caves nearby.
Jama Pilanca, about 100m away, was exacavted between the World Wars and
contained potsherds and stone age bones as well as a Roman fibula from
the second century.
Jama Špehovka, 30 minutes walk away, is the most interesting archaeological
site of the area.
It was first excavated in 1934 and last in 1990.
The findings from the old Stone Age included 226 stone tools, bones and two
harpoons.
There are also bear markings, were cave bears used to rub off their old fur
after winter along the wall.
The original show cave was the passage behind the huge portal, a huge horizontal
passage which ends at a high climb.
With the construction of the railroad and a station nearby the cave was easy
accessible and became a favourite tourist spot.
On the other side of the mountain Tisnik (786m asl) is another cave, originally
named Lisičnica.
Rather narrow passages lead into the huge Medvedji Rov (Bear Cave), a
huge horizontal passage which connects the two sides.
Below the Lisičnica entrance the water of the neraby brook Ponikve looses
underground, crosses the mountain and reappears at the Huda luknja.
This lower level, a water cave called Vodni Rov (water passage), is
partly accessible from the old show cave.
The local caving club maintains both the cave and a small hut nearby.
They offer various tours through the cave, but the normal tour is the through
trip from Lisičnica entrance to Huda luknja entrance.
The two hour trip requires good physical fitness, equipmet is provided.
Of course there is also the possibility to visit the old show cave, for less
sportive visitors, but all visitis including this easy one, are only made by
appointment.
The most difficult and strenuous visit is obviously the water filled passage,
but this tour is only made with good cavers.
See also
Karst cave
)
