Tounjčica

We stumbled on the Tounjčica by chance a few years ago and filed it away on our wish list. Before that we had never heard of the river. It is about 12 km long and flows into the Mrežnica, while its source is connected to the Zagorska Mrežnica. When the Sabljaci reservoir was built near Ogulin and the flow of the Zagorska Mrežnica was thereby brought under control, the water level of the Tounjčica fell considerably.

The Tounjčica canyon is graced by beautiful scenery and is an ideal spot for an autumn outing. It is easy to reach, and the riverside path is short, easy and without climbs. If that sounds dull and not challenging enough to anyone, we will add that the Tounjčica rises inside a deep cave with a very striking entrance that is not blocked in any way, so you can walk straight in. Near the entrance there is even an encouraging sign with an arrow showing that the path continues into the cave. More about these signs a little later.

You can leave the car in the car park beside the road in Tounj. You will also find an information board there. The descent into the canyon is easy, some 30 m of height difference, and ends at the reconstructed Frankopan bridge. The wooden bridge fits perfectly into its surroundings, which could not be said of the lamp posts installed along the river bank. We could make no sense of them at all. We understand that nowadays it is relatively easy to draw funds from EU programmes, but that should not be a reason to invest in unnecessary things. This is a river canyon, not some town park, so we see no point in those posts, other than to add to the very topical problem of light pollution and thereby disrupt the biorhythms of the plants and animals.

After crossing the wooden bridge, we decided to head right, to the source and the cave already mentioned. That stretch of the path is about 150 m long. In front of the cave entrance you can see that the river has a whole series of smaller tributaries which vary with the season, but the main source is in the cave.

Tounjčica cave is almost 400 m long, and a sump connects it to a nearby, far longer cave in the Tounj quarry; the whole system, with a length established so far of 9,904 m, is known as the Tounjčica cave system and is one of the longest in Croatia.

Unless speleology is your profession, I see no need to go wandering deeper into the cave on your own. The entrance alone provides quite enough adrenaline. For this occasion we had brought head torches, so we went in perhaps 100 m or so. You need to be careful, because after a few dozen metres there is total darkness, there are side branches in which you can get lost, and the ground is rough and slippery. In places the ceiling is so high that the light from our torches could not reach it.

After the cave we came back along the other bank to the bridge, crossed it again and headed left, downstream. To our disappointment, the downstream path runs for only about 250 m. Along the way you will come across a wooden platform with benches. After it we went another 30 metres or so and could go no further. It is possible that the path once continued and has collapsed, because there were some signs that it used to be possible to go uphill. We have often seen it happen in canyons that a tree falls and takes part of the path with its roots, or that the path is simply carried away by erosion or by the river in spate. It would be interesting if the path could take you as far as the famous Tounjski most, some 600 m downstream.

To finish, I will come back to those signs with the distance markings. We found them very confusing. They seemed to have been put up without any system, because we kept coming across larger and smaller numbers of metres alternating (?!). It would be logical for them to tell you how much of the path is left, but if a few dozen metres after a marker saying a couple of hundred metres you reach the end, then nothing makes sense any more. Since there is nowhere to get lost in the canyon (except in the cave), you can happily ignore them and give yourself over completely to enjoying this beautiful piece of nature’s handiwork.

The unassuming Tounjčica delighted us more than many far better known places!