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Little Carpathians |
The Little Carpathians are a part of Europe's Carpathian Mountains. The Little Carpathians are about 100 km (62 miles) long low range, covering 646,1 km² (249.5 sq mi) that sits in western
Slovakia and northeastern
Austria.
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Our
team building this weekend was held at Záruby which at 768 metres (2,520 feet), is the tallest hill of the Little Carpathians.
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For those of us that weren't too hung over from the
slivovice the night before we went on a short hike to Jaskyňa Driny, about 2 km from the village of Smolenice.
Jaskyňa Driny is the only publicly accessible cave in western Slovakia.
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The limestone cave was first explored in 1929. Various stages of of the cave were opened in 1934 and 1950, until it was reopened in 1959. It was declared a monument in 1968.
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Of the 636 metres of explored length, 550 metres are open to the public via a guided tour.
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The fearless explorers |
The cave is quite interesting with various stalagmites. We even saw some bats!
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When we came out of the cave I was approached by a reporter wanting to interview me for Slovak radio about my thoughts on the cave. My first instinct was to quickly defer to the Czech and Slovak speakers, which I did. In hindsight I should have at least given it a try. Oh well, maybe next time.
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