Potop v Planinski jami

Category: Activities Published: Thursday, 14 September 2017 Written by Igor Vrhovec

This Saturday we went again to the Planina Cave hoping that we will find a continuation to Pivka cave in the Pivka siphon. This time, we started a new life line and a searcher along the left (southern) wall of the siphon, at a distance of 400 meters from the entrance to the siphon. The direction is similar as along the right wall (230 to 240 degrees), the depth at which we were swimming is somewhere between 55 and 65 meters. The ceiling was not visible and neither was the floor.

Then the wall turned left (more towards the south) and we thought "aha, now it finally bends to the south," but then it quickly turned right again and then right and right, and right ... Again the same situation as the last , a trench that ends with a vertical wall. So we went deeper again to try to find a continuation there. And we probably did. Well, whether it's right or not we'll see in the next dive.
From the mark at 400 meters we used 180 meters of new life line. The exact direction of the last part is not known because the digital compass has malfunctioned, so the next time we'll have a mechanical compass just in case. The water temperature was 10°C, and the dive took us three and a half hours. The life line now ends somewhere below the ceiling at a depth of 96 meters (yes, the order of the digits is correct).
Participants: diver were Sebastjan Gantar and Igor Vrhovec. The support team, to whom the divers thank for all the help, patience and hot soup were: Miran Bedenik, Marjan Vilhar and Matjaž Milharčič from DZRJ Luka Čeč Postojna; Uroš Frlan, Simon Hiti, Tine Žnidaršič, Matej Zalokar, Viki Gornik, Jaka Peteh and Franjo Drole from JD Rakek. This time we also thank JD Planina and IZRK ZRC SAZU for technical support in the form of boats!