Description

This cave is in so many ways surprizing. As I added it to our itinerary, I had now idea what I was getting into. Fist of all the cave is impressive, but not necessary by the cave formation that everyone is looking for, nor by it's size or other expectation you would have from this kind of place. Let me tell you how I felt. The cave was shaped by waters from a long-forgotten sea that covered this area or by an underground river. All the rock structure and wall inside the cave are winding and curvy and wave like. There is no straight line there. Beacause the cave in composed of limestone and sandstone rocks, it is easy to carve by the water. All look like a waterslide that left this amazing shapes. It all reminded me of Gaudi, if I wouldn't know better i would say that Batllo House was influenced by this cave. You know Gaudis' style is inspired by the nature and organic shape. You will find that in Orlova Chuka, but constructed by a different architect, the supreme architect - water. I can not tell you how pleasing it is for the eyes to see these shapes and arrangements. It gives you a lot of joy and surprise. From time to time this shapes have colored light to put them in value. There is also another resemblance with Gaudi - his love for dinosaurs. There 2 spaces carved in the walls of the cave that are the negative shape of the dinosaurs that were caught in the rock. You will walk in this spaces and see the spine of the dinosaurs above you, where was the tale and the head. Pretty amazing might I say. The other aspect that I loved about this cave is the guide. It is not important that he does not speak English, he tried in all the other languages he knew (French, Romanian) to tell as the stories. And boy, he is a story teller like no other. He took the time to take us through the legends, the history and he wonders of this cave: the lucky spring, the zoomorph formations in the cave, he even sanged to us. When I exit the cave, Oh, Champs-Elysées was still singing in my head. To demonstrate the acoustics of the cave he sanged to us multiple occasions with his voice and his harmonica. This cave is a journey you shouldn't miss. I would also add some facts about the cave: - it was discovered in 1941 and opened for tourists in 1957 - the cave is inhabited by a colony of 12,000 individuals bats (14 species to be more exact) and they should not be disturbed - the cave is the second longest cave in Bulgaria (13000 meters), but you only get to visit the entry part. - the cave gets its name from the rock above Eagle Rock - the most impressive formation is the Great Stalactite which is 3.5 meters high and 50 cm in diameter