Cerme Cave - Bantul, Indonesia

The Crew

Mini waterfall

Watch out for the bats!

Last Saturday I went “caving” or whatever you call walking through a long 1,200 meter cave.  I met up with a friend of a friend who was leading a group to Cerme Cave in Bantul, a town 40 minutes outside of Yogyakarta.  We all met up in Yogya and followed each other with our motorbikes.  Driving there, I past breathtaking scenery; lush rice fields, mountains and banana trees.  We arrived 45 minutes later at the village leader's house.  He was in charge of the small mountain village community where the cave is located.  We left our bikes with him and headed to the cave,  it was about a 15 minute walk to the cave entrance. 

Before entering the cave our guide handed us bike helmets.  Walking in the cave I was sporting a bike helmet with a flimsy visor and a headlamp.  Entering the 1,200 meter long cave, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The water level on average was about 2 feet high.  At times we were crawling with the water level up to our shoulders.  In the two hours we were in the cave we saw a lot of bats, some sort of cricket creature and lots of cool mud/mineral deposit formations.  We even saw a low pressure waterfall.  I guess during the rainy season the water pressure is pretty intense. 

It was a great adventure, there was not technical experience or risk involved, as long as you are not claustrophobic!  You could walk through the cave in about an hour but we took our time.  The water was refreshing and relatively clean.  At times the cave was narrow and cramped, the helmet was a good call.  It wasn’t a necessity, but it let me focus more on keeping my camera out of the water rather than bumping my head. 

When we emerged from the cave (a different exit point than the entry point) we walked back to the village chief’s place and enjoyed  a nice lunch.  We had  rice, tempe, tofu, tea and fresh veggies.  I contributed sour cream Pringles J.

Krakal and Sundak Beach

The swimming hole.  You can barely see Melis and Melanie

Melis, Nancy and Melanie

Locals catching some food

Last weekend Melissa, Melanie, Paul, Nancy and I went to Krakal/Sundak Beach, which is about a 2 hour drive from Yogyakarta.   We visited a few beaches up and down the nice stretch of empty real estate.  The beaches were very clean and the ocean was very choppy with double overhead waves. We saw only a handful of visitors and a few locals.  We basically had the place all to ourselves. When we arrived at 12  we relaxed on the beach, reading, talking and chill'n in the water.  Around 2 we walked down to the only place we found open and had some nasi goreng.  There, we met a guy that gave us a tour of the local beaches.  We wound up swimming in a beautiful swimming hole that was surrounded by bright green vegetation.  Due to the low tide there were many tide pools forming where some locals collected various sea life.  After a few hours we headed back to meet up with our taxi.  On the way we came across an amazing deserted resort up high on a cliff, over looking the beaches we visited.  The views from this place could beat most any beach front property.  We found a guy that was looking after the place to inquire how much it would cost to spend the night there.  Apparently they only open up the resort when a huge party reserves it.  It is not open for first come first serve customers. bummer!  The price was way too expensive anyway.  After that we headed back to the taxi and returned home.  Next time I think Melis and I will attempt to ride our moped there.  Melissa's Indonesian skills are good enough to get us directions if we get lost:-)

Here is a link to an interesting story behind Sundak Beach