Caves

The karst area of SE Slovakia and northern Hungary is riddled with caves, and we've been to a couple of them. The first was the Aggtelek system in Hungary (which connects to the Domica cave in Slovakia). We joined a bunch of Hungarians for the 2 hour tour - the guide spoke only Hungarian, but they had a printed English description which gave us some information about the cave. The tour started with a seemingly endless set of steps leading down an artificial entrance to the cave. At the bottom you could go left (towards Slovakia) or right - our tour went right. The entire tour was on a well-paved, well-lit pathway with lots of 'tites, 'mites and other stalags to look at.

In the 'Great Hall' they turned out all the lights and then played the 'Chariots of Fire' theme music over a large sound system while various lights flashed on and off. You come to the surface again a couple of miles away from where you started, and take the bus back. Not a bad tour, but a bit on the 'prepared' side.

For a change of pace, we also went through the Krasnahorska Cave in Slovakia. This one is run by the local caving club and is a lot more basic. You start by putting on your red coveralls, your helmet and your miners light. A short artificial entrance leads to the cave proper, where you scramble over rocks, cross small wooden bridges, go through a tight squeeze,

climb ladders and cross a large pool of water on a couple of steel cables.

At the end, there's a larger chamber with the 62m tall 'Dripstone of the Rozhnava Cavers', at one point listed in the Guiness Book as the worlds tallest.

Then you turn around and go out the same way.