Pindul Cave the Green Gateway

Indonesia, my beloved country, is never tired to amaze me with its natural amazement. This time I will share my experience when I went to Pindul Cave or Goa Pindul. This cave is located in Southern Yogyakarta, at Gunung Kidul area, Desa Bejiharjo to be exact. I have been to Jogja a lot of time, like seriously I would go to this city whenever I have the chance. Jogja is so amazing! I would tell the story of my visits to Jogja in other post because this post is dedicated for Pindul Cave only :) 

This trip I took on last semester break, a day after my birthday so this was a birthday gift from me to myself :') Originally, it was only me, Mayang and Andra who wanted to go to Jogja to take Dana, my American friend who teaches English in SMA 2 Madiun for the whole year, to explore the city. Then, three people came along and joined our group; Kea, Ira and Hafid. We (me, Dana, Andra and Hafid) went to Jogja by train from Madiun. The ride took approximately 4 hours to get there. Arrived in the city, the rest of the group picked us up with the car we rented from my friend's Reza's colleague and we went straight to Pindul Cave. By car, the journey takes for about 2 hours from central Jogja. Since Pindul Cave is a new tourism destination, there was not much sign we could see a long the way. We then asked people how to get there. If you're not feeling confident and afraid to get lost, there are lots of people offer themselves to be your tour guide to get to Pindul Cave. They will lead you with their motorbike. We took our chance and did not take any tour guide. We were confused at first but finally we figured out how to get there by asking random person we met on the way, I personally gave them my sweetest smile in return. Hahaha.

The weather wasn't that good when we got there, it was showering and no sun appearing. It was an hour past noon when we got to Pindul Cave. We then registered ourselves to one of the agency that provides outdoors activities, we chose Dewa Bejo and here is the link to its official website (Desa Beji Harjo). We registered for doing cave tubing that cost IDR 30.000 and also body rafting (IDR 45.000) we also paid a freelance photographer that would take our picture when we were doing those two things (it was IDR 150.000). The purpose was of course, all of us wanted to be in the picture and enjoyed the fun as much as we could and not to think of how to keep our cameras dry. So yes, I suggest you to just pay for a photographer. This guy that took our pictures was very nice and funny too! He told us many stories and jokes, the pictures he took also in good quality! All of the pictures in this post were taken by him, unfortunately I forget the guy's name :(

After registering, our group was guided by two guides. They checked our equipment and told us things we should and we should not do when doing cave tubing. Then here we go!

The view of the entrance gate of Pindul Cave was awesome! everything was so green, the water is clean too.  The river that flows in the cave is 5 to 12 meters deep, in rainy season when the waters gets really high, it can cover up the whole cave and of course no one can get in without diving in the river. This cave has three zones; the bright zone, the dim zone and the dark zone. 

Inside of this cave you can see a lot of beautiful stalactites and stalagmites and lots of them are still active. There is an enormous pillar inside of the cave that actually formed by the convergence of stalactite and stalagmite, this  calcium pillar is the 4th biggest one in the world. You can also find a lot of bats that nest on the cave wall, they will go outside to feed when day is dark. In the dark zone, you can barely see anything, it is pitch black! Somehow I found it so peaceful there though I can see nothing but darkness. The guides told us that this cave was used by priests to meditate. 

 At the end of the dark zone, we finally saw sunlight. There was a small cliff we can hike and we can jump from it to the water. The water is deep enough so you won't hit rock bottom. It was a total FUUUN!! I jumped twice and would go again and again but I had to let others to experience it so I just did it twice.

Done with cave tubing, we were then heading to River Oyo (Sungai Oyo) to do body rafting! :)

We had to take an open back car to the starting point, it was great because we could see the houses of the local people and the beautiful scenery of Gunung Kidul area. The rain made the road to go there a little bit muddy but it didn't make us backed down instead we were more than excited to start the rafting. River Oyo is about 7 to 11 meter deep. The stream is medium so I think it is really perfect for you who never have done rafting before. This body rafting takes 45 minutes to an hour.

What makes this activity fun is that there is a rest point along the river where you can go the small waterfall and go jumping from the cliff to the flowing river. We took sometime there and joined with other groups at the waterfall. 

At the end of the day, we were so exhausting but definitely satisfied with our visit to Goa Pindul. And I highly recommend you to put Pindul Cave on your list when you happen to go to Jogjakarta. It will be such a loss not to go to this beautiful place :)