| j.18. 10. 2021 22:56:44 |
Yesterday (Sunday, October 17th) from Kurja Valley to the cave Chapel under Kalce and back.
After a few hours of wandering under, along and above Hlev, I found myself at the fork of the collapsed gully that stretches its tongue from under Pisani Turn (let's say it's really called that) to the forest and further into Kurja Valley. The route instructions and description (Pastirica, many thanks, if I have something to return the favor with, I will!) directed me to the steep forested and grassy ridge left of the gully.
The ridge is extremely steep for the first few meters. At the beginning, right above the ten-meter collapse, an inviting little path crosses it horizontally to the left, which I followed for a few meters, but it didn't convince me and I returned to the gully. I resisted the description that invited me to the slopes of the ridge after just a few meters and pushed through the smooth and crumbly terrain for quite a few dozen meters until I finally decided on one of the crossings to the steep grass. The trees there are quite dense, roots occasionally sticking out of the ground were excellent holds. Well, I also had an ice axe on my belt (psst, don't tell anyone, a few times there were no roots, so I stuck it in the scree, once even in a fallen tree).
Along the ridge left of the gully it's only about a hundred meters of elevation to the point where the gully ends under the cliffs of Pisani (?) Turn. There you're supposed to cross the gully horizontally to the grassy ledge that leads to the Chapel on the other side of the gully. I was already a bit fed up with the steep grass that in the last part was made worse by a mikado of about 15-year-old fallen trees, so I decided to go back into the gully and climb up to the prescribed crossing along two trunks of fallen trees. Don't! The first few meters were still okay. But when the trees for support ran out, and I was approaching the top of the gully, the loose scree (two steps up, three down) really gave me a fright! I barely broke through to the described crossing, which turned out to be even a tiny path. Along it to the ledge leading to the Chapel wasn't too hard, just the last few meters before the cave are a bit steeper, earthy-rocky and somewhat exposed. So it went slower again.
The cave itself really has the shape of some chapel, it's deep, about fifty meters, and high about ten. Well, honestly, at the end of the cave I didn't really poke around looking for possible passages leading further. I haven't come across detailed data on the cave itself anywhere, not even in Cave Systems, which lists locations of Cave in Varvanje and Varvanje2. Pastirica in Uganka brez prestanka is of course an exception! There are aragonite hedgehogs on the walls, quite a few of them. Actually, the cavity felt somehow friendly to me, like a rock shelter, even more appealing than its famous sister Kamniška Cave above Bela.
I returned approximately along the approach route, only that when crossing the collapsed gully I faithfully followed the little path, and on the grassy-forested ridge I descended a bit more to the right (looking downhill), about twenty-five meters away from the gully. About ten meters above the ill-fated little path, right above the steep part, I somewhat forced a crossing into the gully.
And if someone wants to visit the Chapel themselves: from the parking lot in Kurja Valley along the cart track, keep to the right or straight, not left. After about three hundred meters, an overgrown cart track branches off almost imperceptibly to the right, going under Hlev. Don't turn onto it, but continue ahead along the equally overgrown cart track, which slowly turns right and after about 15 minutes ends in the forest left of Hlev. About 40 meters before the end, go diagonally left uphill through the bushes, soon you reach a gravelly stony gully that forks higher up. The right branch is indistinct. Along the left branch uphill on the grassy-forested ridge, as described. Total elevation gain is over 300 meters, the access is serious off-trail, slippery in wet, so be careful!
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