Primož Jakopin, photo diary

Rakov Škocjan and Obrov
Lake Hugo and Jezerina cave

December 7, 2025, 25 pictures

          Most images are approximately 768 x 1024 pixels in size. Numbers in front of picture descriptions are serial numbers of the original photo files. Mikhail Tertychny - Mishka contributed greatly to the success of the excursion. Primož Presetnik - Pipistrel identified the plant in photo 56317, and Marjan Govedič identified the fish in photo 56311. The names of the cave parts are sometimes the author's.

          The purpose of the excursion was to photograph water reflections in the main tunnel of Zelške jame. Due to high water level and the inaccessibility of most of the water tunnel, a visit to one of the most popular caves in Matarsko podolje followed.

          Page, text and photos copyright (c) Primož Jakopin 2025.


 

Zelške jame


 


 
56299. Mishka with a boat and a transport bag on the bridge over the river Rak


 

 


 
56300. Wide-angle view of the Little Natural Bridge and the top of Velika jama (Big Cave)


 

 


 
56301. Mishka held the boat in place against the wall of Lake Hugo so that the author could take ...


 

 


 
56302. ... this bird's-claw-like photo of the wind-tilted stalactites at the junction of the wall and ceiling.


 

 


 
56303. The muddy sandbank on the western side of the lake was once accessible by dry land through a passage at the bottom of Osja jama. Visitors could not go beyond this point and often liked to immortalize themselves on the wall with a pencil. Some inscriptions from 1907 and 1909...


 

 


 
56304. ... 1916 and 1930 ...


 

 


 
56305. ... 1909 ...


 

 


 
56306. ... again from 1909 ...


 

 


 
56307. ... and from 1910 and 1912.


 

 


 
56309. Telephoto shot from the beach to the other side of the lake


 

 


 
56314. The collapse from Osja jama has narrowed the lake considerably at this point. The last navigable part of the tunnel before Velika jama follows through the spillway on the left side of the picture.


 

 


 
56312. Checking the lake bottom at the collapse


 

 


 
56310. Upon landing, Mishka noticed at the bottom (in the yellow illuminated dot) ...


 

 


 
56311. ... this little fish — in Latin it's called Cottus metae.


 

 


 
56315. The southern edge of the sandbank, with the passage towards the rapids in the background. Unfortunately, the water was too high and Srebrna dvorana (the Silver Hall) was out of reach.


 

 


 
56317. A path leads from the river to the road along the southern slope of the cave Ževška jama, and the year-round high humidity has enabled moss to grow freely from a twig on an elm tree.


 

 

Jezerina


 


 
56318. Mishka on his way back from the passage at the bottom of the depression in the middle of the northern side of the cave entrance


 

 


 
56319. Mishka liked the small dripstone altar just behind the passage which leads to the inner parts of the cave very much.


 

 


 
56320. Calcite crystals on the wall, the height of the part captured in the picture is approximately 40 cm.


 

 


 
56321. The richness of the ceiling draperies in the Hall with a stepped stalactite column


 

 


 
56322. In the left wall of the terminal hall in the cave, in the seventies, cavers tried to find a continuation and dug an approximately 30-meter long tunnel in the clay. The heaps, partially visible in the picture, are from that time.


 

 


 
56324. The dripstone organ in front of the terminal hall ...


 

 


 
56325. ... and a flowstone-ornamented recess in the wall to the right of the previous photo.


 
 


 
56327. Overlapping dripstone curvatures and draperies along the wall of the adjacent hall


 

 


 
56328. A bubbling spring of stalactites on the ceiling


 

 

Related pages:


 


 

  Cave Bay at Lake Cerknica, November 27 to 30     Skednena jama, Gradišnica and Planinska jama, December 9 to 30, 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 December 8, 2025; date of the last change: January 1, 2026.

URL: https://www.jakopin.net/primoz/slike/2025/PJ20251207_en.php     104