Jomblang Cave or Luweng Grubeg is worth to visit for an adventurer who love caving and interested to experience something different under the ground. The cave is really special because if you want to come inside, the only entrance you have to pass is a vertical hole. Jomblang Cave itself is a vertical cave and this place is very protected, indeed and not everyone is allowed to enter it.
Jomblang Cave is popular with the name of ‘Light of Heaven’ because this place is the only one cave with the entrance of the light. Don’t doubt to see the beauty of the cave because it has become the byword among the adventurer. Actually, most of the tourists, both local and foreign are interested to observe the character of the cave and the diversity of the flora and fauna inside the cave.
 |
| Picture Travel.kompas |
Location of Jomblang Cave
Jomblang Cave is located at Jetis Wetan, Panjangrejo Village, Semanu sub-district, Gunungkidul Regency, Yogyakarta. Precisely the location is around 10 km from the big square of Wonosari. If you start the travel from Yogyakarta, you need to drive around 60 km and it can be reached around 1.5 to 2 hours by car or motorcycle.
If you want to take public transportation, you can start it from Giwangan Terminal Bus and take Yogyakarta – Wonosari bus to Simpang Lime Wonosari. You still need to continue the trip by taking small bus to Semanu sub-district. Usually, before exploring Jomblang Cave, the tourist would stay at the Jomblang Resort first and then continue to go.
Lets get down to Jomblang Cave
When you heard about a cave, you may directly imagine you will witness darkness, humid, and quiet place. But, when you come to Jomblang Cave, you will shock seeing Light of Heaven. Yes, true!
Jomblang Cave is a vertical cave which is has collapse doline type. According to the geological processes, the ruins of the land and vegetation dropped into the bottom of the earth thousands years ago. Those ruins created a sinkhole with a diameter around 50 meters.
As a vertical cave, the caver must experiences the thrilling way because you must competent to single rope technique (SRT). You have to use certain equipment, i.e. SRT set which is consist of footloop, carabiner, auto descender, short cowstail, long cowstail, ascender, jammer, chest harness, seat harness, and many more. For the complement, you must have headlamp, boots, and coverall. Before going down to the cliff, you must listen to the instructor how to do it for your safety.
After your wear all of SRT set, you can get down to the base of the cave with a total depth around 80 meters. Actually, there are 3 lanes you can choose. Firstly is VIP with the depth around 15 meters, standard with the depth around 60 meters and extreme with the depth around 80 meters. For the beginner, you can choose VIP and standard. At the standard lane, you will land right in the ancient forest. This forest becomes the eco-tourism in this area.
Landing at the Jomblang Cave
Right at the base of Jomblang Cave, the stretch of horizontal cave is so wide. This is the entrance of the cave. You need to work along the dark path for about 10 minutes to go to Grubug Cave and then you will meet a spectacular phenomenon. At the base of the cave, there are 2 big brownis green stalagmits. If you arrive at the base of the Grubug from 12.00 – 13.00, the view of the sunlight that penetrates the darkness of the cave is so amazing and this what you can call as Light of Heaven.
The cost of exploring Jomblang Cave
Travelers, if you are interested to explore Jomblang Cave, you must know the cost. The cost is IDR450k per person with full facilities and lunch. If you want to stay at Jomblang Resort, you can add IDR350k per person. If you dont plan to stay at the resort and you only want to caving, you have to arrive at 9.30 sharp.
However, if you come with friends (minimal 6 person), they agree to pick you up at Yogyakarta by paying IDR550k per person. The number of tourist to explore is limited, i.e. 25 person per cave tubing and 50 person in the week end. If you still want to challenge the adrenalin there, you can try climbing at Jomblang Wall or caving at Jomblang Cave.
The owner and the instructor of Jomblang Resort said that the first time he managed and organized Jomblang was as eco-tourism because the caves and the environment around this area need to be preserved. The cave is organized as eco-tourism and definitely not a mass-tourism. And since Sewu Mountain area stated by UNESCO as a new member of Global Geopark Network at September 2015, Jomblang Cave is pointed as an icon of world geopark.
