Skiing the Planet

Monday, June 5, 2023

400K

This is not about the U.S. retirement investment scheme 401K. This is about my car reaching a respectable level of 400 thousand kilometers.

(However, since the meter was broken for about seven years, the car has likely more, maybe closer to 500K.)

Petnička pećina is an old but abandoned show cave in the limestone rock hills near the town Ваљево (Valjevo), Serbia. While only 600 meters long, the cave feels massive due to its vertical differences and the high halls. Just look the two people in the above picture for scale. And the "eyes" in the ceiling! The cave is also Europe's largest cave tomb.

In its abandoned state the cave is quite interesting and even challenging. While there are steps through the cave, everything is covered in wet mud, so climbing through the cave is challenging. Be careful if you visit!

Deeper into the cave you will also encounter bats. I entered as far as the Bear's Hall, where they were plentiful. And flying above your head. You know intellectually that they will not hit you... but it still gives a bit of the shivers... particularly in the darkness, in areas where other visitors will not come, and with the dug up graves and tombs in the muddy floors. Material for the horror movies!

The eyes... they also give you some feelings:

Of course, I'm exaggerating a bit. The walk through deeper parts of the cave is not easy and there are empty tombs and bats may give you shivers... but in the end, if you go far to the cave, you will feel alone, and be in the wonderful wonders of the nature. The main touristy parts of the cave are easy-ish -- the main entrance is a walk in the park, literally, it is also wheelchair accessible which is nice. From that point onwards there's a challenging steep stairs to climb up to the High Hall in a man-dug corridor. The steps are muddy and the handrail has rusted away. But it is still walkable as long as you have a light.

When you enter High Hall it is the most wonderful touristy part, with the eyes, and the large space. You can even explore it a bit further towards the end of the cave, in the direction of the Bear Hall. On steps, this is a climb. Or slightly lower again on steps towards the the small lake. Getting to the lake itself will require some climbing on a muddy slope but is worth it, if you have good shoes and don't mind mud on your clothes. Be careful though, this is beyond the man-made steps area.

The best part of High Hall is also that this is a way to make a through-trip, and exit from a side entrance in the middle of the hill wall. It will be an easy walk down on a path with concrete steps.

Back in the cave, I think one could have continued from the Bear Hall onwards, or at least I did not see anything that was closed off, but it also looked small enough that I didn't go further. Afterwards I was a bit sorry I didn't at least peek. Although the area is named "Passage with Abyss" which doesn't make it exactly an attractive option for exploring alone with no knowledge of what I'd find.

There's a tiny bit of information about the cave in the English wikipedia page, but more in the Serbian one. See also this and this article. The map of the cave can be seen below (taken from the sign at the site, also available in high-res):

More pictures of the High Hall:

Main entrance:

Inside the upper parts, here's a photo from the Bear Hall:

Upper entrance:

Path leading to the cave is seen below. There's a small easy parking lot, just couple of hundred meters from the cave.

Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Saturday, June 3, 2023

More parts falling off

Parts falling off (while driving).

Kalemegdan bunker

In the Kalemegdan park / Belgrade Fortress there's also a bunker. This is a bunker Tito ordered to be built, and it was constructed in early 1950s. It has two gun ports (now closed), and it is today an open museum that you can visit.

A long tunnel connects the two areas supporting the gun. There's a few additional rooms for storage and crew under the guns and along the long tunnel.

Here's the entrance:

One of the gun rooms on the 2nd floor of the bunker:

A curious horn in the gum room, is this for ventilation?

Stairs to the gun room:

Sunday, May 7, 2023

Burg Hohenzollern

It is an imposing, massive castle on top of a high hill. Worth a visit!

Here's the website and the wikipedia article.

As my friend Mark pointed out the entrance arrangements are a great example of defense in depth, or perhaps even about paranoia... there's multiple doors, multiple layers, always positions to shoot down on an advancing attacker. Nicely done. Very nice to look at, too.

Some pictures from inside:

More pictures from the outside:

And last but not least, dungeons discovered only recently, in the 2000s.

No sauna power for me

"The sauna is only open until 10pm". But I was coming in later, so I wanted to know if I could use it in any case. They said I could, if I was quiet. However... I couldn't turn the sauna on.

Not sure if that was because the power was cut off due to renovations elsewhere in the building (and a nearby gym room was gutted, too) or if there was a timer somewhere.

Well, I've been in this sauna before, so ok ... not sauna this time.

All this is happening at the Schloss Dagstuhl, a center dedicated for organizing Computer Science workshops. It is a superb place, mostly because it gathers people around the castle as it is not easy to find anything else nearby. So the discussion continue through the evening and to the night, in the wine cellar, and sometimes even in the sauna. But not int he sauna this time, then!

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) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers and visit when there is simply no one else or the facility has been closed or booked only for me.

May 1st at the Finnair Lounge

Wow. Munkkeja (donuts). Traditional May 1st delicacy.

Then, in the air I had received a nice upgrade. Here are the meal and sky views:

For more flying stories, check out the planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Trust me, it is NOT a watertower

It does look very weird. For some reason I thought it was a water tower. It is in the town of Oberreid in the Black Forest area in Southern Germany, near Freiburg. But ... it is in fact a defense against against nuclear weapons and natural disasters...

It is called Barbarastollen. Right behind it is an old mine, archiving Germany's cultural heritage and safeguarded for natural and man-made disasters, 400 meters underground. For more information, refer to the Google Maps page and this article. The archive is described also in a Wikipedia article here.

Only crappy parts with this car

While I was away, they replaced the door with a used one from the car wreckers. It is dark so hard to see, but initial reaction at home is that it doesn’t fit because “it is clean and not rusted at all unlike the rest of the car”.

Leaving the car, hoping for a fix

I'm going for a business trip, and I'm dropping the car off on the way to the airport. Let's see ... this could be expensive...