In the original plan, today was going to be spent exploring Pula but, since we'd managed that the previous afternoon, we decided to head up to Venice early. As expected, accommodation in Venice was expensive and parking even more so, so we booked a place in Marghera on the mainland. We weren't able to check in until around 2pm and the drive was only 3 hours, so we had some time to burn.
I came up with a few options and we ended up settling on Baredin Cave. We'd really enjoyed Postojna Cave and Baredin promised to be much of the same.
The cave was an hour north of Pula, on the Istrian Peninsula and is part of the same karst style caves as Postojna. The name of the cave comes from the terrain type (baradine - or bared - meaning uncultivated land). The cave was opened to guests in 1995 and consists of a 300m long path, 60m underground and takes about 40 minutes. It was also home to Proteus or Olm.
We arrived at the caves and managed to book an English tour in an hour's time, so we sat and had a drink and a snack while we waited for our 11am session.
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| The cave |
The cave was impressive, but nowhere near the level of Postojna. It was still a worthwhile trip, a good break from the heat and a chance to see a Proteus.
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| The entrance |
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| Heading down |
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| The drop down to the lower levels of the cave |
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| Showing the transparency of the rocks |
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| The olm (Proteus Anguinus Laurenti) |
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| Olm |
After the cave we drove the rest of the way to Marghera and checked into our accommodation. The boys had a quiet evening and Kris and I caught the bus into Venice. We got back home around 10pm and headed back in as a family the next day. For simplicity, I will capture the both visits in the next post.
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