The beautiful Moravian Karst
Today I visited the Moravian Karst Nature Reserve near Brno again. It is a wonderful landscape with deep valleys and hills, which were formed by rivers in ancient times, when the area was still covered by sea, and therefore it is made up of organic marine sediments. Fossils of ammonites, belemnites and other marine animals form the carbonate sediments. An extensive cave system was formed in the area due to the surrounding watercourses and the chemical processes they create. These processes continue very slowly but continuously even today and shape the cave system. Five spectacular caves have been opened to the public in the area: Punkva Caves (Punkevní Jeskyně), Catherine Cave (Kateřinská Jeskyně), Výpustek Cave (Jeskyně Výpustek), Balcarka Cave (Jeskyně Balcarka) and Sloup–Šošůvka Cave (Sloupsko-šošůvské jeskyně). Today I visited Balcarka Cave.
Archaeological and paleontological site
The cave was easy to reach. I traveled from Brno via Blansko to Ostrov u Macochy, Balcarka stop. The bus stop is right by the ticket office, so there was no need to walk from there. On one side is a wonderful green valley, where I could hear the chirping of forest birds and the bleating of sheep from afar. On the other side is the Balcar Rock, which has a huge natural entrance. The cave is also an important archaeological and paleontological site, as it has been used by humans since the Paleolithic period. This is evidenced by the archaeological finds found here, such as pointed stones, fireplaces and bone remains.
Excellent tour guide
The air temperature in the cave is 7-8 °C (45–48 °F) and the relative humidity is about 99%. The tour is 720 meter (~787 yd) long, has 333 steps and takes approximately 60 minutes. The tour guide is excellent, interesting and entertaining. They are held in Czech, but you can ask for an English brochure when buying a ticket or download the Jeskyně ČR mobile application. In the application you can read or listen to the English audio guide. (Just a reminder: Don’t forget to download the audio before you enter the cave, because there will be no signal.) Where it happened that I was alone in the tour group, the tour guide, if she could, exceptionally gave the tour in English so that we could talk to each other more easily. This nice gesture was very appreciated.
Exquisite stalactite decorations
The Balcarka cave has the richest and most varied stalactite decorations. If you look at dripstones, you’ll see that stalactites grow down from the ceiling. Stalagmites grow up from the ground. When these grow together, we call them stalagnates. Many different shapes have formed on the flat ceilings formed by the limestone layers, which are called long straw, stick and carrot stalactites based on their shapes. Many conical stalagmites and stalagnates could also be seen. The variety of colors also caught my attention. Some were made of pure crystals of calcite, others were colored with iron oxide. They were transparent, snow-white, gray, yellow, beige, and reddish-brown. This cave has undoubtedly the most beautiful stalactite decoration of any cave I have visited.
“I want to know why I’m alive. I want to understand. It’s like exploration; it’s like someone being interested in a place and its history, digging into the earth and looking for it, searching – it’s a passion.”
– Juliette Binoche