Grotta Gigante

[nanila]

One of the Trieste trip activities selected by Keiki was the Grotta Gigante. Accordingly we booked timed entry tickets, and headed out on the bus on Day 2.



Spoiler alert: It is a gigantic cave. You have to descend 500 damp, steep, slippery steps bounded by damp, slippery metal handrails. As a person with acrophobia, I should have realised beforehand that this was going to test me, but somehow I managed to completely miss that despite it the access parameters being pretty clearly stated on the web site. I am quite proud that through much deep breathing and tight management of the pointing direction of my vision, I was able to cope with the descent and appreciate the visit.




Humuhumu and Keiki on the bus.



Bloke and me on the bus. Photo by Humuhumu.



The walls.



First stop on the descent.



The ceiling. Stalactites!



The walls. It’s stalagmites all the way down.



Close to the bottom, and now some of the stalagmites loom above you.



There’s something H.R. Giger-esque about this wall of stalagmites.



If you want to give yourself a headache, try to match up the stalagmites with their feeder stalactites.



We can see the bottom…



As can the geodetic pendula, the longest in the world.



Behemoth stalagmite! It looks like one of those barrel jellies but 40x bigger.



Stalactites and stalagmites do eventually meet in the middle, it just takes a few hundred thousand years.



These all have wet tops, so are still growing.



As is the biggest stalagmite in the cave. His name is Roger. Roger the Stalagmite. Do not laugh, English tourist.



Heading back up.



That’s Roger’s tip. /solemnface



Intricate ceiling features. Apparently three different species of bats nest in the caves, but humans almost never see them.



The pendula are rather delicate-looking hollow tubes.


Suspension mechanism.



Aaaaand lunch!



With tiramisu.

Finally, we hopped back on the bus to town to enjoy the afternoon sunshine, which will be the subject of a separate post.



THE END.

Comments

[cactus_rs]

Good job on surviving the cave! It's so hard to get good photos of them IME, but those are Very Good and now Trieste is on my bucket list

[nanila]

Thanks! It is well worth the trip and small amount of faff for advance booking.

[annofowlshire]

How grown up are those kids looking?! And you're rocking the grey. Love it!

(Also, love the holiday photos, but I clearly hadn't seen recent photos of Nanila-fam :D)

[nanila]

So grown up. 😭 Humuhumu and I went shopping in Trieste and she bought some clothes I was not anticipating - much trendier.

Thank you re: hair colour! I am enjoying being grey. I'm impatient for the rest of the dyed bit to grow out but it really won't take much longer.

[sfred]

Well done for being brave!

[nanila]

Thank you! I feel so silly about it when everyone else in the family doesn't seem to have any problem.

[sfred]

I don't think it's silly (I'm scared of heights).

[bearshorty]

That is a really impressive cave! Glad to hear you managed to enjoy it despite the phobia.

[nanila]

It was spectacular. Totally worth gritting my teeth through the descent.

[house_wren]

Oooh - that looked like a Doctor Who set. Thanks for posting about it.

[nanila]

Yes! Otherworldly is an appropriate description of it.

[major_clanger]

Roger the Stalagmite. Do not laugh, English tourist.

Sorry, I laughed.

Amazing photos!

[nanila]

It was very difficult not to snigger during the explanation, especially since our guide was a small and fearsome Italian woman who clearly loved Roger.

[silveradept]

Those are lovely photos of the caves. Hopefully the sights and the tour were worth the 500 Steps of nanila's acrophobia.

(It's interesting to see how Humuhumu styles her hair. I wonder what she gets up to when she's not going out in ballcap and hoodie.)

[nanila]

Mostly she likes to tend the curls with special products, but occasionally she asks me to straighten it. She sometimes puts in contact lenses too, to completely change her appearance.

[silveradept]

Trying to find that look that she is going to be comfortable with and feels sufficiently fashionable about, then?

[forests_of_fire]

you are a braver person than I!

How did your children get so old?! The mind boggles.

I agree with annofowlshire. I'm loving the gray on you!

[nanila]

The kids just keep getting taller. And hungrier. And grumpier. 😅

And thank you!

[cosmicjellyfish]

Aaahhh, incredibly cool cave photos (also hi Roger!!) I’m glad you were able to get through the descent - it’s so hard to run into a phobia unexpectedly.

[nanila]

Thank you! In some ways I'm glad I didn't think it through too much beforehand or I might have ducked out of it. On the other hand, abseiling down was also an option, and if I'd had to do *that* unexpectedly I probably would have swerved it.