Primož Jakopin, photo diary

Unnamed cave in Matarsko podolje
Narrow entrance, very nice descent, even more beautiful cave

January 30, 2025, 22 pictures

          Most images are approximately 768 x 1024 pixels in size, numbers in front of the picture descriptions are serial numbers of the original photo files. Vladimir Levašov from the Ljubljana Cave Exploration Society made a decisive contribution to the success of this excursion. The name of the cave is not given due to the risk of pollution or damage to its interior. The text mentions Claudio Bratos and the late Stojan Sancin. Names of cave parts were often given by the author.

          Page, texts and photos copyright (c) Primož Jakopin - Klok 2025, except for the photos VL48, VL49, VL50, VL51 and VL52, which were taken by Vladimir; they are published here with his permission.


 


 
54884. One of the purposes of the excursion was to test two recently acquired Chinese work lights. Each weighs 210 grams, measures 8.7 (width) x 9.0 (height, with a movable handle/backrest, rotatable by 180⁰, in the lower position 10.5 cm) x 3.7 cm. It is powered by a 2000 mAh Li-ion battery, has 42 diodes (in 6 columns, 7 lines), it is not waterproof. There are four operating modes: reduced power, full power, flash and SOS. In full power mode it stayed on for 3 hours and 45 minutes (6 hours were declared), in reduced power mode it would probably be over 12 hours (20 were declared). The lamps worked very well in the cave, the main advantage being their moderate size and bearable weight. With a slightly stronger rubber band such light can be easily attached to the top of a hazel stick for more natural lighting without long shadows produced by the light source on the ground.


 

 


 
54862. It was still freezing in the morning, but the day was windless and pleasantly warm, and the brave people even wore with short sleeves.


 

 


 
54863. View from from the entrance to the south, across a few meters high rock edge


 

 


 
54864. It was about three quarters of an hour's walk to the entrance. The nearest field track, in the west-east direction, was years ago easily passable by car, but over time low thorny bushes grew in the grassy middle of the little used track and the author gave up after a hundred meters. We proceeded about one kilometer on foot, to the east. The meadow ended, and half an hour walk through increasingly dense bushes followed. The author calculated the coordinates of the entrance by interpolating readings from various sources (and missed by only about 40 meters). However, due to the dense bushes, it was often necessary to take longer detours. From the calculated point where we left the backpacks, Vladimir managed to find the cave in less than five minutes. In a beautiful clearing, without thorns. You can easily recognize the entrance by the draft. In winter, it is like a hurricane, as Claudio says, and on excursion day, when the temperatures outside and inside the cave were quite similar, it was still blowing quite a bit, in the direction out of the cave. The leaves of dry grass at the entrance waved vigorously. About 50 meters away, Claudio and Stojan dug another winter blowhole and hoped to find the continuation of this cave. Unfortunately, it was just a 30-meter deep blind pit.


 

 


 
54867. View from under the second rebelay towards the surface. The entrance is narrow, you have to descend sideways. The author had a small backpack with a few flashlights on his back and did not take it off at the entrance. When he pulled himself down with some force, he noticed that he had one shoulder strap from the backpack at face height. He pulled it and got the luggage, which had remained a little higher, onto his helmet.


 

 


 
54866. Looking down to the third rebelay, below it is Vladimir's headlight, when he was already in the part of the pit where it opens downwards like a bell.


 
 


 
VL48. The author during the descent along the last stretch


 

 


 
54868. He stopped about 10 meters above the bottom, hanging on the rope, Vladimir placed three lights and a photo of the bottom of the pit was created. The tunnel leading to the cave is under the wall on the far right, bottom of the picture.


 

 


 
54880. Mammal bones about 5 meters from the impact point, in the middle of the bottom of the entrance pit. Without the skull, it will be difficult to identify the animal.


 

 


 
54869. View from the Side Access Tunnel into one of the larger halls of the cave


 

 


 
54873. On the balcony along the right edge of the previous photo is this stalactite curtain, with a top extension


 

 


 
54874. The stalactite stage, in the photo before the previous one, it would be situated to the left of the lower left corner. Behind the author is the passage to the continuation of the cave.


 

 


 
54876. In the passage, the path runs along a large boulder that was once part of the ceiling and on which stalactite curtains formed, which after the boulder fell from the ceiling changed direction from vertical not only to more horizontal, but even to slightly upward-facing one.


 

 


 
54877 and 54878. At the end of the tunnel, where the dry part of the cave ends, the two excursion participants separated. There was very little time left and the author decided to try to take a picture or two at this point. During this time, on the third attempt, the faster and more agile Vladimir found a vertical narrow passage in the corner below that leads to the Water Tunnel, and took a quick look at that, final part of the cave. In the photo: A stooped old man stares at a small cyclops - two stalagmite concretions. Illumination: the two lights from the beginning of this page at reduced power, both facing the camera, one hidden behind the statue on the left, the other behind the stalagmite on the right, and a very small light in front, to soften strong shadows. The background is illuminated only by reflected light. The photo is a collage of two photos. In the first one the background was as it should be, but the author spread out a little too much over the middle rock, in the second one he kept low profile as he was supposed to, but unwanted, noisy reflections appeared in the left half of the picture. The two halves, the left one from the first photos, and the right one from the second photo, make the desired result.


 

 


 
54879. The stalactite stage to the left of the previous photo, at the top of the hall. Two lights from the beginning of the page, mounted on almost two-meter-long hazel rods, illuminate the stalactites on the left and right, two narrow beam flashlights, again one on the left and one on the right, illuminate the upper half of the picture, two small lamps lightened the foreground, two floodlights added contrast to the center, and another narrow beam flashlight, the strongest, behind the stalactite at the author's feet, illuminated the ceiling.


 

 


 
VL52. Three photos from the Water Tunnel - the first could be titled: A stream with rimstone pools.


 

 


 
VL51. Stalactites and Dry Crystal Pans


 

 


 
VL50. Small lake with stalactites on the shore






 
VL49. On the way back, the author climbs the steep dripstone covered slope along the rope, towards the hall, where the Side Access Tunnel ends.


 

 


 
54881. Vladimir under the penultimate rebelay, nearing the top of the climb


 

 


 
54882. "And the cave gave birth to man" ... Vladimir, just before he climbed out of the pit.


 

 


 
54883. It was already night - packing up the caving gear. The light source is the lamp from the beginning of this page (at reduced power), hanging from a dry branch on the pine tree from which the rope ran to the first rebelay at the entrance. We had three ropes: 50 meters long 11 mm thick, 28 meters long 9 mm and 15 meters long 11.5 mm thick. The pit is about 30 meters deep, maybe a few meters more, and a 50-meter rope would be sufficient if we started with it at the first rebelay, in the entrance, including all the loops at the further rebelays. If we started with it at the pine tree where the light is (and from where the 28-meter rope was used till the last rebelay today), it could be too short. We took the 15-meter rope into the cave and we used it when climbing to the end of the last hall before the Water Tunnel.


 

 

Related pages:


 


 

  Martinska jama near Markovščina, January 26, 2025     Velika Karlovica and Mala Skednenca, February 5, 2025  
 


 

This page, text and photos by Primož Jakopin, member of the Ljubljana Cave Exploration Society (DZRJL). Send inquiries and comments to primoz jakopin guest arnes si (insert dots and at sign as appropriate). Page was initiated on January 31, 2025; date of the last change: February 16, 2025.

URL: https://www.jakopin.net/primoz/slike/2025/PJ20250130_en.php     449