There is a small information office 2.6km outside the town of Perusic, which marks the entrance to the Grabovaca Cave Park, with a rough trail then leading a further 2km througha flat meadow and up a short steep hillside to the cave entrance.
Where once we found comfort in group rituals around a smoky, dim fire in acave, now many of us put on earbuds to connect emotionally through recorded music with our fellow humans.
An effort to send rescuers through the collapsed mine tunnel to attempt an underground rescue was suspended last week, after a new cave-in killed three rescuers and injured six others.
When Stone Age man produced their remarkable cave paintings they often left handprints on the walls produced by blowing pigments from one hand througha tube held by the other hand.