Yet another 5am wake up call to be ready for our transport at 6am. We mama fed to scrounge up some green coconut pancakes before heading off in the van. We picked up one more person called Shannon also from the U.K.

Our first stop was Jomblang cave. I will start by saying that the cave itself was magical. However, the organization was, for lack of a better expression, shit. To reach the cave you had to descend 60 meters by abseil. They had one pulley system for 120 people. 2 people could go at once. They only had 20 harnesses. Each group of people got given a number. We were 18. It took 45 minutes for us to have a harness on. Another hour from then before we were called to be winched down. Once on the cave floor we were then told we had to wait until we were a group of 25 before carrying on inside. This was another 30 minutes as 14 other people were sent down. To go back up we waited an hour and a half in a queue of people, more than our 25 group, before being hauled back up. It was the most inefficient system ever. There was not point in the 25 person system. We spoke about solutions. What they should do is have two winch systems. Split you into 25 at the top. Have time slots for the groups of 25 to all get a harness and head down on two pulleys. Whilst that group goes exploring another set are lifted down. When it’s time for first ground to come up both winches switch to haul them up. They also had a restaurant area where we ate lunch with free tea and coffee. Whilst the groups wait they should be allowed to chill there instead of waiting by the winch.

Okay. Now the cave. It was mystical with vapor pouring out of the main entrance. We head down and instantly felt cooler. We had not been given any water so far and were relieved to cool off.

The main event is a hole around 300 meters inside the cave. When the sun is just right, light rays are cast around the caven creating a striped pattern. We took some photos before joining the queue to leave.

After some lunch we went to Pindal cave. This is a water cave. We sat in rubber rings as we got dragged through. The cave was full of bats on the ceiling. At points you couldn’t even see the rock through the sleeping bats.

We also spent around an hour drifting down a river occasionally hitting some white water making for an adventurous tubing experience.

We finished around 5 and drove an hour back to the city. Robin and I went for dinner before bed.

-M