Another outdoor past-time I particularly like doing is caving… or spelunking. However, when on our travels to Europe, I usually opt for a non-grimy, walking and not crawling around version of caving. That’s because I don’t have the luxury of being able to have all my caving essentials with me and it’s also because I have extensive camera gear on my person which makes clambering on all fours rather cumbersome. So, I have to, unfortunately, opt for the touristy, clean, and non-stressful slow trot-and-stop in the cave with very large groups of similar camera toting shutterbugs.
During our stay in Brno, aside from exploring the city, we thought of going a little further and found that the Punkva caves were just an hour’s ride outside of the city, near a town called Blansko. The Punkva Caves, are a cave system of the Czech Republic located north of the city of Brno and that is where the Punkva river flows. These caves are one of the most popular caves in the Moravian Karst. The main entrance is located about 2 kilometers from Skalní mlýn. What’s unique about this cave is the water cruise that visitors can opt to take on their way out which begins underground via the Punkva river, which also leads one to the possibility of being at the bottom of the Macocha Abyss if said route is taken.
It is an impressive cave system. Cavernous is the most cliched but apt word to described the place. It’s at a constant temperature as most caves are – meaning it can get quite chilly inside.
Now let me show you our arrival and journey around the area and through the Punkva Caves.
We arrived pretty early, before the caves were open for tourists, but the cable car was open for visitors, so we decided to take the train ride up the hill instead of walking, because I was just achy from too much walking during our trip and it was rather cold that morning.
Upon reaching the top of the hill, we went exploring while it was snowing lightly. It was chilly but bearable and the view was lovely. It being quite early on a weekday, with few to nobody else around except for the staff on site, the place was all ours to roam. We found a few hiking/walking trails near the look-out point and ventured down one that lead us to a view of the opening of the cave.
We then took the short walk down the trail to the lower landing area to have a look at the view from there.
And this was the view we were treated to. Later on, during the tour, we would be standing at the bottom, near the pool of water near the cave opening.
This is the entrance to the Punkva Caves. Not too many people on a weekday, which is nice. But still at the end of the wait, there was a pretty large group gathered. Time for some fun and our tour begins!
Now here’s what we saw in the caves.
And now we’ve reached the opening of the Punkva cave where earlier I mentioned we saw from above. Here’s what it looks like from within.
Moving on, we rushed through this, looking for the rest of our group. We were straggling so far behind that I couldn’t even hear them anymore.
Finally, found them! But there’s only one path down there, so I was pretty sure we would catch up to them sooner or later. But I didn’t want to miss the boat ride or worse, keep everyone waiting! Thankfully, neither happened. We got there just in time to see them load the first boat of tourists and push them off before our boat could dock for our group to enter.
Side note: Camera-carrying folk, the sudden change in temperature causes awful fogging of the lenses, be prepared.
I highly recommend a day-trip to the Punkva Caves if you are near the area or putting up a few days in Brno. It a scenic experience, very pretty. If you have more time, you could walk the trails and do the hikes around the area.
MellemPix 
One Pingback