My Travel Blog Series: Zlot Caves, Heaven under the Ground
I am a man of free views. I like blue sky and open spaces. I like to be free and to feel free. I like to look in distance and think 'Oh boy, look at that far away place, it must be amazing to be there!'... and then to go there. And to look from that place into distance and think 'Oh boy, look at that far away place,it must be amazing to be there!' and...
You got the picture. I believe that you may call me wanderer.
But, as a kid, I discover that caves are also amazing, beautiful places. At first I could not really understand why we are having 'Class in Nature' in hole beneath Nature. Why we should go underground when there is so much open spaces we can visit and enjoy.
Then, at a first sight I realized that caves are another worlds. Probably my Tom Sawyer imagination combined with Sci-Fi books I was swallowing. In those caves could be lying ancient secrets, faeries, burred treasures, lost civilizations, pirate maps, passages to another worlds, aliens from another planets, lost explorers, extincts monsters... My imagination was at complete loose!
To be honest, while having views from another planet it is not so hard to let your mind at loose. Caves are simply food for our imagination. That's why I was more than happy to be among first people to enter another lost world which was opened for visitors just few years ago - Zlot Cave also known as Lazar's Cave.
Your journey will begin at parking in front of the cave. Smiley guides will immediately instruct you to dress up. And it would be wise to listen them. If nothing else, you will be witness that they are wearing serious mountaineer jackets and winter boots. Temperature in cave is almost constant: 9-12 ℃ (48 - 53 ℉). If you are there during summer (and most likely you are) difference can be quite noticeable. You do not want shivering to destroy your enjoyment.
As I already mentioned, this is the longest cave in Serbia. How long? Well, explored part of cave is 9.4 km (5.8 mi) long according to Wikipedia. If you ask for more first-person opinion; it is huge. Complex of caves near this area counts more than 220 individual caves, with this one being the largest. At least the largest explored, it is not excluded that there is even larger unexplored cave in this area.
Guided tour will take around half hour, depending on discussion with guides and size of the group. Whatever you do - DO NOT wander out! Guided part of cave is about 1.5 km (1 mi) long, but rest of the cave is six time that big. If you lost, most likely they will look for you for hours. And if you think that calling and yelling will help, you obviously never tried to yell in cave - there is no way anyone can determine source of sound because of echo.
Cave itself is another world. Even though I sow some amazing caves, this one is, in my humble opinion, by far most diverse and astonishing. Names of individual halls will heat up your imagination, and excellent guides will keep that flame to very end. There are Weapon Room, Fairy’s Town, Concert Hall and many more. Each one so different from another that you can hardly understand that they belong to the same cave. Additionally, each one is followed with some amazing story or legend.
Cave ornaments will leave you breathless. You will hardly maintain control and not touch them to convince yourself that they are actually made of stone, not from ice. Of course, it is strictly forbidden to touch any of cave ornaments, since you are going to destroy them by that. Enjoy with your eyes in frozen stone waterfalls, and amazing stories from another world about each one of them.
Legends are popular in this part of Serbia. Imagination of local population is high. They will tell you amazing stories, each more beautiful or more scary then previous one. After couple stories you will have hard time to distinct which ones are imaginary one and which ones are real.
On your journey you will witness some narrow passages and huge halls in next few steps. And colors which do not have name, changing at each step. Let's just mention Colosseum hall with more than 60 meters (196 ft) in diameter and height of astonishing 59 meters (193 ft). All that with most beautiful ornaments and rock formations I ever sow.
Speleologists was particularly imaginative when they named rock formations inside Lazar's Cave. You will find Colossus, Godzilla, Obelisk, Cave man, Silver fir, Old woman, Hive and most known and most striking - The Bison. He is so real, that I have to ask - is it real bison beneath, petrified during centuries. Answer is, of course - no, it's just Mother Nature working overtime.
Some part of Zlot Cave are closed for visitors, even they are very well explored. One of halls you are not allowed to visit is Bat's Hall, home of more than 20 endangered species of bats. In my mind, it is closed because is also Batmen's Bat Cave, but don't say it to anyone ;)
Zlot Cave is very well worth visiting. Even though some other cave complex in Serbia are more known and much more advertised, this one is by far most beautiful, at least for me. Put Lazar's Cave on your bucket list, next to Lazar's Gorge - you will not regret it , I guarantee!
Million 'thank you' to Ivana, guide who was patient and kind enough to prolong tour for double time while I was setting up gear and taking those pictures. I am still very sorry that you were cold, and as I promised - every time we met you have unlimited drinks on my tab ;)
All photos in this blog entry are taken with Canon PowerShot SX50 HS. All photos are long exposures. If you are interested in exact photo info, just request that in comment and I'll provide exact parameters and post processing techniques for each photo.
!steemitworldmap 44.029424 lat 21.962359 long Zlot Cave! D3SCR