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Grotta Impossibile – for the second and, as it seems, not the last time

Underground surprise near Trieste - 2012-09

During the first visit to the cave we were completely mesmerized by the dimensions of the halls and shafts, but due to lack of time, we only managed to see the shorter and easier part of the cave. Perhaps that was because of the large number of participants and the rushing of the guides, as the tour of the whole system requires more than just a few hours of walking. Anyway, the time to see the farthest parts of the caves came this year, before the winter cold when Miha surprisingly renewed his almost forgotten promise of seeing Impossibila instead of the highland Ice cave. Why surprisingly? Because the Ice cave is usually the first one on the list of suggestions for spending some quality cave time, especially if we weren't very good with visiting it this year.

This time around, we gathered in Bazovica for the necessary coffee break, continued with the boring changing into our caving uniforms and finished at the artifically excavated entrance to the cave. From here on, the hours passed on their own. We overcame the initial passages easily, and then stopped once again at the eminent stalagmite. I really wanted to repeat shooting the giant, as I wasn’t very pleased with the photo last time, but I have a feeling that I will have to deal with this problem again in the future.

After a lengthy photographic break, our legs finally carried us over to the northern parts of the cave. Due to a premature rope descent and consequential possible back injuries, we said goodbye to two of our members, who noted the continuation of the cave for next time and turned towards the exit. Due to lack of time, we weren’t able to leisurely walk around the cave and take a few photographic breaks, so we were quickly on our way to the next attraction of the cave – the carrot-shaped limestone formations.

The cave is interrupted by a motorway tunnel in two places. Both of the parts are picturesque, but the north one is special because of the long metal sticks – pilots, which were nailed into the walls of the tunnel. Sadly, we had to abandon our hopes of seeing this specialty due to the corroded carabines, which practically couldn’t handle any further burdens. A bit disappointed, we turned to the far passage of the cave, where we walked on sticky mud during our short photographic tryouts in the otherwise beautifully decorated passage.

Timewise, we didn’t plan thing very well. Some small things and unecessary stops were to blame for the late hour of our return, and because nobody had a timemeter with them, we relied on the time on my camera. Unfortunately, it was incorrectly set an hour back, which led to a late exit. The photographic bounty was, this time, smaller than usual, which will be, as well as the many undocumented motives, another motive for a future visit to the cave. Bah, let’s say in a few years.

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Copyright Peter Gedei