Jomblang Cave : Heaven’s Light (VLOG)

I was sitting on a local night train three weeks ago, thinking hard whether i should just go to Yogyakarta. Logic said that i need to learn how to save, apparently living in Indonesia is not as easy as i thought. But heart said, i think i need to go, release all the tensions and just explore more. Finally, i chose to follow the later part of my voice. The voice that i dont regret at all.

Yogyakarta is a nice quiet city. No wonder that it is renowned as a city of education, or normally the Indonesian will call it ‘Kota Pelajar’. But, aside from its tranquility image, Yogyakarta can really offers you a thrilling adventure that you will not forget for the rest your life.

I welcome you to Goa Jomblang (Jomblang Cave). A place that takes about 90 minutes car-ride from the central of Yogyakarta, located at Semanu, Gunung Kidul Regency. I heard about this place a lot since 3 years ago. I guess its’s only lately it became popular, since many of my friends still dont know this beautiful cave is exist in Indonesia.

We are chasing a glimpse of ‘Heaven’s lights’. So, we started driving about 7.30am from our Airbnb because we need to reach there at least by 9am. The team will prepare us once we reached there, provide us with boots and help us to put on the necessary harness and helmet. And by 10am, all of us have to go down the cave.

This is the most interesting part before we get to see the highlight of the day. The process of lowering us down through the biggest sinkhole that i have ever seen in my life. The size of the sinkhole may up to 25meters diameter, with 60 meters deep.

Since they dont have any elevator to get us down, they have to lower us down by Rappelling Technique. Which means they gonna descend us manually with a rope and pulley, with a big faith in the people’s skill and strength who pull us up and down. Trust me, this is so scary yet so exciting at the same time. That feeling when they hooked your harness to the pulley and you have to stepped out of the edge and let yourself hanging there for a minute or so before they lower you down, is the craziest feeling ever.

When they already hang us up, now it’s the process of lowering us down to the forrest below. It was really overwhelming experience too. Eventhough everything is handled by the professional, there’s still nervous feeling of falling down from the rope. It is such a mixed feeling up there, mesmerised by the beauty of the forrest yet unavoidable anxious feeling of falling. The process of rappelling down is not that fast, it takes about more than 5 minutes to go down the 60 mtrs sinkhole.

They gonna rappel you down two-by-two. If you’re in a group of three, one of you have to go alone. Lucky it was 4 of us back then. Haha..

Once you got down to the forrest, you have to trek about 300 mtrs to get to the heart of Jomblang Cave. The track is quite difficult for me, since it’s very muddy, it’s a real forrest, slippery and rocky to go down the cave. And when you reached the cave, it will only get darker and darker, and your eyes cant really see anything at first. If you have headlight, it will be so helpful when you get in to the cave. But if you dont have one, it is still okay since the jomblang team will light the way for us as well.

After the ‘struggle’, we finally got to see the ‘Heaven’s Rays of Lights’. Such a jaw-dropping moment. When i first saw it, i just want to stand there, in the middle of the cave and just pay attention at the mesmerising scene. But i have to keep moving, cause it is not the best spot to see it yet, and i hold up the other people behind me.

After a quite challenging track, finally everything is paid off. And the Rays of Lights that penetrate through the sinkhole is just so captivating, so remarkable and hypnotising, until it left me speechless.

Such an amazing natural creation. I still cant comprehend how it was used to be a large underground river that erodes slowly and made it a gigantic beautiful cave. Gosh, it is just so mind blowing. Guess it’s just like life, sometimes you dont know the mundane process that you are going through now may mold you to become a more beautiful you at the end of the day.

Thanks to two explorers (a German and a French) who discovered this place during 1980s. Would not have this kind of fulfilling trip if not because of their team.

Btw, it was a group 40-ish people when we went down that day. And surprisingly, it was only 5 Indonesians from that large group of people. Bravo for Indonesia tourism.. I guess Indonesia is getting more popular now. And people start to go to other parts of Indonesia other than Bali. Haha.. The entrance fee is Rp 450,000 / person (inclusive lunch and equipments)

Below is my VLOG! Must watch on how we go rappel down!  Hope you enjoy!