Green Cave

(Photo by dronepicr/wikimedia, CC BY 2.0)

A hole in the sky. Or in the roof, rather. This is what has given this cave its name, Zelena Špilja or in English the Green Cave. At noon, sun will shine through this small hole down to the water in the sea cave, and combined with the sea weed at the bottom of the water, a green light is created. I'm here though in the evening, but the cave is still spectacular!

There was actually three holes, the main one, a smaller one, and a tiny crack that also gave some light. The main one was beautiful, you could see the thin rock cover covered by green vegetation above, all shining in sunlight. Very pretty. But I had to wonder about the cave's future, given that the roof looked like being only few tens of centimeters thick. Some day the environmental erosion will cause pieces of the roof to come down, making the hole larger.

We got here with a speedboat tour, though, and no motor boats are allowed in the cave. This meant that I had to swim from the boat to the cave, and then inside the cave... not much, maybe 100 meters from the boat. And the cave is over 30 meters deep. In recent years I've been very nervous about swimming far from shores or the lake, given my heart problems. I guess I made an exception to see the cave :-) There was a little floating platform in the cave though, with handrails to hold on to. That gave some comfort.

The cave is on the island of Ravnik, off the shores of the bigger island, Vis. Vis in turn is a 2-3 boat ride away from the town of Split on the coast.

The cave is in these coordinates N 43.015605 E 16.224207. More reading about the Green Cave here: Wikipedia, YouTube promotional video, Nautica, Zen Travel Croatia, Diving Vis, and Explore Adriatic. We joined the Milaneze Marine tour (or one half of the tour). They are based in Komiža, and a full tour covering the day and multiple beaches in addition costs around 60€ per person. A half tour, just getting to the green cave and then back to Komiža costs around 30€. But the smaller boats from Milna near Ravnik may be an easier and more cost-effective option if you just want to see the cave, and are already in Milna or have a car to get there easily.

More photos from the cave:

(Photo by Dejan Sekuloski/Wikimedia, CC BY 3.0)

(Photo by Piotr Stós, Nautica, published here)

Here's the tour boat and some rocky shorelines of Ravnik:

The tour makes you visit the Milna, Zaglav, and Budikovac beaches, even for the half tour. We also swam at Zaglav, sadly Budikovac was closed se it could only be seen, but not actually visited on. The three beaches are shown in the following pictures:

There are by the several caves on the southern shorelines of the island Vis. We visited one of them with the boat, at the approximate coordinates N 43.009955 E 16.120934, on the rocky shores near the Podhumlje village. This cave is big enough for a boat to enter, but you can't go particularly far inside. Some smaller cracks of the cave may continue further. A few pictures:

There are several others, e.g., around the Srebrna beach (see another article). And one in these approximate coordinates, also near the Podhumlje village: N 43.007470 E 16.1091617. Picture:

My previous articles about caving and underground structures on Vis include: Tito's cave, Blue Grotto on the nearby island of Biševo, Srebrna Beach caves, Dog Beach mini-caves (2nd article), underground submarine base, Mali Hum tunnels, Vis missile bases, and Zagrebenje bunkers.

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. 

Swimming prohibition

I've been in a medical procedure, as a time slot opened in my hospital for an operation that I've been waiting for. This lead me interrupting a vacation and flying back to Finland, some great care in the Meilahti hospital, some sick leave, and hopefully getting improved health as a result. But it also led to a temporary prohibition for swimming and saunas, and heavy exercise. Fortunately I can still soak my feet in the pleasant waters of the Bodom lake, in Oittaa.

I've been here before, of course; this is near my home. One article about an earlier visit is here. And the official home page is here, and Tony Hagerlund's blog article is here.

This time they were setting the beach up for some supping and kayaking competition, and while there were almost no swimmers (it was a work day), there was a ton of activity for setting up spectator seats, power lines, judging facilities, etc. Just the TV crews alone were at least four big trucks.

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. No photos of beachgoers were taken.

Ski, swim, and fly in one day: Myyrmäki, Pornainen and Helsinki-Vantaa

An active day, for sure. I needed to fly out today, but before that I wanted to get my August ski turns in the massive snow mountains of Myyrmäki's ice skating hall (picture above), visit my mom, and do a quick swim at a swimming place near her in Pornainen's Hietasen uimaranta (Hietasen's beach) in Vähä-Laukkokoski. A nice package for the day! The skating hall was open and there was a pile of snow, saw my mom, visited the beach with warm water and sunshine and no one else around, and had a pleasant flying experience in the air and at the airports.

My mom is staying at a care home, located on the “Happiness journey street”. She is doing very well and is indeed happy there 💚

These steps from the beach say "summer!":

Skiing was ... skiing, so always great 😏 What was important for me was to make a few turns, I managed two per run I think on most runs, and did ten or so climbs to the top of the "mountain". 

And at the airport I went to Finnair's Platinum lounge (on the Schengen side). I was surprised to see the sign below, do we really need say when alcohol serving begins? And doesn't the lounge open anyway at 5:30 am, so they always serve it? Or if they open it already at 5:00 am, maybe those passengers are already so zoned out that alcohol wouldn't even cross their minds...

More skiing photos:

More swimming photos below. Hietasen's beach has also been discussed in Tony Hagerlund's blog article here.

Flying photos, at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport:

Then on flight I got a nice meal (upgraded through some vouchers I have left, so I was in business class):

And in Split, Croatia, where I was headed to for vacation:

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites. For more flying stories, check out the planetflier.com website. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Altamira cave (replica) visit

Madrid, Spain. There's a famous cave, the Altamira cave in Cantabria that has fabulous cave paintings. Unfortunately, it is today inaccessible to prevent visitors bringing in moisture that was slowly degrading these ancient paintings. Ancient, very ancient, the cave paintings were made between 35,000 and 13,000 years ago. The cave was closed after that period by a landslide, until it was discovered sometime in the late 19th century due to construction work.

The cave used to be open to visitors, but it is now indeed closed. There is a nice replica in a museum in Cantabria (link), although I visited another replica in Madrid, in the Archaeological Museum (link).

Not the original, but much recommended. It is also very, very cool. And the replica and the museum is extremely nicely done.

The replicate cave room featured a replica of a part of the cave's ceiling. Conveniently a mirror was placed below it, so you could view it looking up or down:

And the paintings were ... spectacular! This is I guess why they originally didn't believe they were as old as they were:

They also had a map of the original cave, showing as well what part the replica covers:

Entrance to the cave replica is straight from the museum's front yard. No need to even get a ticket from inside, at least on the day I visited. Not sure if that's the case on all weekdays...

Video:

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.