We pick you from your hotel up early in the morning and head to Scarisoara Ice cave situated 130 km away from Oradea.
The route is Oradea; Beiuş; Ştei; Lunca Village; Arieseni (DN75); Gârda. Once you arrive in the village, take the path to the top of the mountain at 1,165m altitude. Descend on the metal stairs along the abrupt vertical walls of the 50m deep shaft. At its bottom lies the entrance to the glacier.
There we explore one of the natural wonders of the Apuseni Mountains, a karst region, visiting Scarisoara cave. The cave is formed by Jurassic calcareous rocks (150 million years old).
A river once flowed on the surface causing the lime to gradually melt. As it did so, the water got underground, creating a cavity. This was in turn filled with ice during an ice age, 4,000 years ago. The climate became warmer, but the glacier did not disappear, as it was supplied with a new layer of ice every winter.
Beautiful stalactites and stalagmites await to be discovered.
The cave was first mentioned in 1863 by Austrian geographer Arnold Schmidl, who made observations and created its first map. Romanian scientist and speleologist Emil Racoviță later explored it between 1921 and 1923 and discussed it and its origin in his 1927 work Speleology. It is 105 m deep and 720 m long, and the entrance shaft (60 m in diameter and 48 m in depth) gives access through metal stairs to a large chamber, (108 m long, 78 m wide) – The Big Hall.
From this point three openings lead to The Church (in front, with over 100 stalagmites) Great Reservation, Coman Gallery and Little Reservation.
The part that tourists can visit includes the entrance shaft, The Big Hall and The Church, the other chambers, which can be visited only with the agreement of the Speological Institute of Cluj-Napoca, being reserved for scientists.
Late in the evening, we return to Oradea.