Jomblang Cave
A Collapsed Sinkhole In The Gunungkidul Karst, Entered By Rope Descent, With An Ancient Forest At The Bottom And A Shaft Of Light Falling Through The Roof Of The Next Chamber · Gunungkidul, Special Region of Yogyakarta
THE ROOF OF A CAVE COLLAPSED HERE A VERY LONG TIME AGO, leaving a vertical shaft into the limestone with a PATCH OF ANCIENT FOREST GROWING AT THE BOTTOM OF IT - vegetation that dropped in with the roof and has been down there ever since, in its own damp, cut-off world. YOU DO NOT WALK IN. YOU ARE LOWERED SIXTY METRES ON A ROPE, hauled by a team of men on the surface, into green half-light. From the floor a passage leads through to GRUBUG, the next chamber, WHERE A SINGLE SHAFT OF SUNLIGHT FALLS THROUGH A HOLE IN THE ROOF ONTO A MOUND OF RUBBLE AND AN UNDERGROUND RIVER - and for a window around the middle of the day, in the right conditions, it is one of the genuinely extraordinary sights in Java. DAILY NUMBERS ARE STRICTLY LIMITED and the whole thing is weather-dependent. Heavy rain closes the site outright, the beam needs sun that no booking can promise, and a cancellation here is the system working rather than failing you. There is no partial version of this visit and no other way in.
Goa Jomblang, Semanu, Gunungkidul, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Gunungkidul, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia
IT IS ABOUT TWO HOURS FROM YOGYAKARTA in the GUNUNGKIDUL karst, and it is NOT A WALK-UP SITE. DAILY VISITOR NUMBERS ARE STRICTLY CAPPED and slots are arranged in advance through the operators - arriving without one is likely to mean being turned away. DESCENT IS BY ROPE, hauled by a surface team, with boots, helmet and harness provided. THE LIGHT AT GRUBUG FALLS AROUND THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, roughly late morning to early afternoon, and IT IS NOT GUARANTEED - cloud kills it. THE SITE CLOSES ENTIRELY IN HEAVY RAIN and during the wet season descents are cancelled at short notice because the shaft and the river below become dangerous. It is muddy, always. Book the dry season, accept the weather risk, and treat a cancellation as the system working.