You shall not pass

Ever since Tom pointed me to this National Geographic piece about the newly discovered largest cave in the world, Hang Son Doong, in Vietnam, I have been thinking nostalgically about my own forays into the subterranean world.  Nestled in southwestern Slovenia, beneath the forested landscape known as a karst, lie the Skocjan Caves.

The payoff moment of a lengthy underground hike is a breathtakingly deep chasm, with soaring ceilings and a narrow bridge spanning the gap over the river below.  Lowly lit, it did not photograph particularly well (better ones here).  Still, I think this captures some of the power of the space - with our imaginations conjuring up Gandalf in the mines of Moria, we were awestruck.  The vast darkness seems particularly pronounced when contrasted with our exit from the cave, emerging through a gaping hole in the earth, out into the afternoon light.