Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Jaskyňa Driny, Slovakia

Little Carpathians
The Little Carpathians are a part of Europe's Carpathian Mountains.  The Little Carpathians are about 100 km (62 miles) long low range, covering 646,1 km² (249.5 sq mi) that sits in western Slovakia and northeastern Austria.

Our team building this weekend was held at Záruby which at 768 metres (2,520 feet), is the tallest hill of the Little Carpathians.

For those of us that weren't too hung over from the slivovice the night before we went on a short hike to Jaskyňa Driny, about 2 km from the village of Smolenice.


Jaskyňa Driny is the only publicly accessible cave in western Slovakia.

The limestone cave was first explored in 1929.  Various stages of of the cave were opened in 1934 and 1950, until it was reopened in 1959.  It was declared a monument in 1968.  


Of the 636 metres of explored length, 550 metres are open to the public via a guided tour.


The fearless explorers









The cave is quite interesting with various stalagmites.  We even saw some bats!

When we came out of the cave I was approached by a reporter wanting to interview me for Slovak radio about my thoughts on the cave.  My first instinct was to quickly defer to the Czech and Slovak speakers, which I did.  In hindsight I should have at least given it a try.  Oh well, maybe next time.

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