They are not really glowworms. I’ll tell you what they are later in this post…
When we wanted to go to see them we were going to do the usual tour where there are 50 people all on the same slow tour. I hate crowds and want to do more adventure. When Caroline found a company that uses a farmers land to abseil into a cave then climb out a ladder it seemed the perfect thing to do on this trip. We chose the 4 hour Lost World Tour.
Luke was our guide and he was great at making you comfortable and helping all the way. I had rappelled in college but had not done this. It was easy in the end. Along the way though we told him he was crazy every time he showed us the next step, but we did it.
We walked to the entrance and along the way we practiced clipping our rings to the guide ropes so if we fall we don’t go far. There are new sections of ropes you tie on to along the way and doing it wrong means you owe Luke a beer.
At the entrance of the crevasse, we tried not to look down. One step at a time… First you sit on a little bar away from the platform. Small leap of faith… (I seriously needed to remind myself that I just jumped out of an airplane and this should be easy…)
Then you learn how to control the rope along the way. You just slowly lift the rope from your right hand to go down a little at a time. The weight of the rope below keeps you from going to fast. (As you go down there is less rope below you so you speed up along the way and have to wrap a foot around the rope for more control.) We are clipped to Luke so there is even more security. Before we knew it we were descending into the caves. Easy peasy.
It was great having a guide, someone to make sure we don’t screw up, and who takes pictures of everything so we could just enjoy. Oh…and he carried water and snacks for us.
At the bottom the top looked so far away as we had abseiled 100 meters down. The biome changed as we descended.
The hardest part was climbing up, over, and down the rocks. I’m sure we were very complaining. He would tell us what to do and we said he had to be kidding. I’ve never been comfortable with rock climbing and now that I’m older I am well aware of my limitations. That lead to much sliding down on my butt.
It was incredible though. Eventually we made it to the glow worms.
So these glowworms. They are really not worms. They are the larvae (maggot) of a fly. There is a chemical reaction with their excrement and an enzyme that makes them bioluminesce.
What is cool about them is that they eat insects and they do this by creating a silk like thread that hangs down. When an insect gets caught it is reeled up then eaten. Once the larvae is ready it becomes a pupa and then an adult.
The only role of the adult is to mate. The males die after fertilizing eggs as does the female as she needs to lay eggs in many small clusters. The first eggs to hatch cannibalize all the others. Life is rough…
The way back out was a little more difficult. We climbed a few more rocks and ended at a ladder. One by one we climbed 137+ rungs of a ladder straight up to get out. We are attached to a rope at the end that Luke could also use to help pull us up. So no likelihood of plummeting to death. A good thing. Luke went first, then Caroline, then me. It seemed like a long time before the rope was sent back down to me to attach to. It is daunting.
I found it easy at first, then the rings were further apart, and the air a little thinner… But knowing that in advance helped to just keep climbing until I got there. A short walk back to the van and we were on our way back…
Afterwards it was time for lunch at Huhu nearby. Salad and sweet potato skins! Then touring the neighborhood town. We found a bird park which I’ll blog next. A good day.