The Thousands

Here’s a fun fact: glowworms aren’t even worms, they’re insects. Flies, usually, but otherwise they’re beetles. They glow through bioluminescence which means the making and releasing of light by a living organism. It’s cold light, though, so don’t think you’re about to enter a thermal cave here.

It’ll be a little bit chilly, and wet. You need to be wearing gumboots because the further in you go, the deeper in muck you get. But a little muck around the knees is a small price to pay for a completely cosmic experience. Standing underneath these glowing beings is extraterrestrial – like standing directly beneath the Milky Way. Mostly they glow green or yellow, but if you see one with a red head, that’s a railroad worm. Mad!

It’s important to remember not to let your star-plucking fantasies get the better of you, you shouldn’t touch these little guys. Through the 80s most of the tunnels were occupied by mushroom cultivators, and although no significant research has been done, it seems like a chemical that they used has made the tunnels uninhabitable for glowworms ever since. So tread lightly, these beaming larvae don’t exist in many of the other disused rail tunnels in the whole south coast area, and they won’t for sometime. Or ever.