Divje Jezero - The Wild Lake

More racing in the epic karst terrain in very hot conditions. Post race swimming in the river and a visit to this fascinating lake. We swam in an old industrial (presumably mining related) lake with steep sides. Some brave (stupid) locals were jumping in from 15m, clearing quite a lot of ground and landing in a deep hole no wider than 1.5m!

Copied from Tourist website
The mysterious karstic lake Divje jezero nearby Idrija is one of the gems of Slovenia’s natural heritage. As early as 1967 it was protected as a monument of natural heritage and since 1972 it has been arranged for visitors, being the first ever outdoor museum in Slovenia. 
It is located about 2 km to the south of the town.
The lake is hidden in the rocky hollow under the precipice of the northern edge of the plateau of Črni Vrh and connected to the mysterious world of the underground water currents. The research work done so far has confirmed the presumption that the lake has got a typical ‘vaucluse’ spring that has a steep and deeply sunken siphon shaft that turns back up only at a great depth.
Having used 420 m of supporting rope going down the siphon, divers have reached a depth of 160 m below the surface.  The emerald green surface of the lake is usually idyllic and peaceful, but only a few days of strong rainfall and the water starts spewing out of the siphon. Gathering from the entire area of the karstic plateau of Črni Vrh and the Javornik Hill (in total 125 km2) extreme quantities of water (up to 60 cubic metres per second) burst out from the underground.

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