Topliţa Cave
Location
Topliţa Cave is 2.5 km northeast of Câmpu lui Neag – in the place called Izvorul Topliţei.
Access
The cave can be reached on the trail that goes from the village to the water collector from Piatra Topliţei, trail that meets the stream Păroasa and then reaches the Topliţei Valley.
Visiting conditions
Because of the fact that the Topliţei stream is captured to supply water for the Câmpu lui Neag village, the cavity is closed by a metal grill and the visitation can be done only by obtaining an official approval. The visitation lasts about 3 hours and the necessary equipment is composed of rubber boots, overalls, helmet, double light source. Various objectives such as the colored speleothems and the gallery sections, can lead to some beautiful pictures.
Description
Topliţa Cave appears as a sinuous gallery, with an east-west general orientation. The small entrance (1 x 0.6 m) is oriented east and it goes into a descending gallery with a very steep slope (45-50o), which after about 12 m introduces us into a 7 x 6 m hall, and then in a nice concretionary part with stalactites, stalagmites, parietal flows.
Next, the main gallery intercepts in different points the underground stream that flows 4 m below and that can be penetrated in a few short parts. Here and there we can find clay accumulations in the dents where the rimstones were formed. We can discover rich concretionary portions, apart from the ones seen at the beginning, at 250-300 m and then at about 400 m from the entrance.
The gallery has an ogival section on almost the entire length and sometimes it presents leakage tracks under pressure. Most stalagmite formations are classic, common conic stalactites, stalagmites, rimestones and many parietal flows. In the cave we can find also, in a superior gallery, one of the largest rimestones in the country, with a 5 m in diameter.
Many speleothems have bloody red color. In the terminal part of the cave, the floor is sandy, with large plant debris. A crash of big blocks restrains the access to the gallery, although the underground stream insurgency is located a few hundred meters further.
Historical data
Topliţa cave was discovered in 1966 by the ranger Pantelimon Todea in Câmpu lui Neag and L. Goloţiu, journalist from Bucharest. In the same year the cave was researched by a team of speleologists from Bucharest, led by T. Orghidan who made the first description of the cave and biospeleological researches.
Later the cave was declared a reserve, but despite this fact, it was visited by unaccompanied tourists that have damaged it. In 1976 the speological class “Focul Viu” makes the integral layout of the cave, discovering new galleries. The actual length of the cavity is 2150 m.