I visited Skocjan Cave in 2019, it was my favorite site in Slovenia but decided to wait and not to write a review until the decision of “Classical Karst” by IUCN to come out. To be honest I would be very happy if that ill-fated nomination becomes an extension of Skocjan Cave since I really enjoyed traveling around this region. Before my visit after read mix reviews and already visited many great UNESCO listed caves around the world especially in US, Vietnam and Borneo, I already made my mind that I should not have high expectation for this cave.

My friends and I arrived Skocjan Cave after two days heavy rain, the rain was so bad that caused us to cancel our day trip to Ljubljana from Lake Bled, a real tragedy for a WHS enthusiast since that capital has become WHS few years later. After secured our pre-booked tickets, we and maybe everyone preferred to wait inside visitor center and café since the whole forest was really cold and wet. Our tour was around 30 people, quite a big group, our guide leaded us into the forest to see the cave, and it was not a pleasant walk from endless showering rain. When we reached the cave, we were pleased at least it was dry inside, unfortunately it was very dry especially the first section of the cave, there was nothing spectacular to see, my friend even questioned why we visit this cave. We walked in silence until we started to hear thundering sound of waterfall, it was really something. Because of two days heavy rain the subterranean river inside the second part of Skocjan Cave turn a bit violent created loud noise and thick fog inside the cavern. The visibility was quite bad, the endless light along the pathway that build on the edge of cavern looked mysterious but beautiful. We walked inside the thick fog, dim light, above torrential river, what an experience to provoke a sense of adventure and danger at the same time. The whole environment was so unreal, almost similar to the scene of Tolkien’s Mines of Moria and the Bridge of Khazad dum in vaporous version. We finally reached exit and back into the bright forest and walked back to visitor center.

Even in 2022, my friend still talked about that day experience in Skocjan, funny that we hardly remember anything that make Skocjan special in term of geological significance, we really had no memory of other part of the cave since no photo was allowed. I still wonder if there is no heavy rain, we may not be happy with and forget Skocjan completely, hinting its quality of OUV, but since it was our luck to see and experience the cave in such situation on that day, and that make Skocjan to always be my top memories of Slovenia