The waters calms me. The mountain gives me peace...
It was August last year when my new set of friends (the same persons I went island hopping to Quezon with) invited me on another trip. It seems like they develop a new hobby and wanted me to try it also - Hiking.
Finally! A chance to cross an item on my "Bucket List". (happy dance)
Bad weather where ever I go :(
I don't know but it seems like when ever I plan to go somewhere LPA is always pesent and trying to spoil my day.
Yes. It was raining hard which I believe the reason why almost everyone is late on the agreed time - we were suppose to meet up @ 9am but they arrived almost more than an hour later that I almost panic thinking that we will not be able to go on with the trip, because how are we suppose to go hiking in this bad weather??? when one by one they finally showed up I was like "thanks goodness".
They said we will be going to Bulacan. Reggie assured that it will be an easy hike so we needn't worry. He also mentioned about the posibility of cave exploring (if we're upto it) and challenge us to try the monkey bridge (whatever it was).
Being a beach person, I'm surprised that there's actually a place as mentioned in Bulacan. So I Googled it to atleast have an idea on what Im getting myself into :p
Located at San Miguel, Bulacan at 196 MASL and is considered a minor hike. It says also that summit can be reached by 1 or 2 hours. Pwede!
We wanted to be able to see the sunset at the summit but having been delayed by the weather we arrived at Bulacan at 3pm and started the hike maybe around 4pm. We were quite positive that we will be able to target our goal.
What I thought was an easy hike turned out to be much challenging than I expected. Thanks to the LPA the trail was wet and muddy.
So after 3 hours of struggling not to slide in the mud we made it to this rock near the camp site we will have to wait until morning to go to the summit so we decided to set up camp and rest. Because tomorrow the real adventure begins.
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| Near the campsite... Konti na lang... |
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| Dinner @ the Camp |
The weather was good to us during the climb but later that night it started to rain.
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| Foggy Morning at the Summit |
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| living at the edge |
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| The girls... |
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| and the boys... had to do this pose. Hahahaha |
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| We made it! (Effeng, Bitoy, Tintin,, Me, Joy, Cath, Reggie, Pia, Ey, Emmeng and Albert) |
On to the next leg of our adventure... Cave spelunking.
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| Had to go down and go up to the cave entrance |
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| Me going down the cave entrance. |
One of the things to do in Mt. Manalmon aside from conquering its mountains is to go Cave Exploring. Of course one should be willing to go inside a cave, crawl, climb and go in to tight places because once you decided to enter you cannot go back to where you started and there's no other option but to go forward and reach the exit.
During the briefing before starting our cave exploring our Guides have 1 simple rule of safety: Trust your Guide.
I was the first to go among the girls. Had to convince them that its safe and its not scary. (Good thing this is not my first time to go on rappelling or I will be among those who is near tears with fear).
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| Reggie |
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| Ey |
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| Effeng |
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| Cathrina |
According to our guide Cave Spelunking is quite easy, but because of the rain last night the inside of the cave is wet and supper slippery that we had to be very careful as not to trip and slip. It also hard to climb some areas because of the mud.
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| goind deeper inside the cave |
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| dead end! had to go up to continue (whew!) |
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| getting not just our hand dirty :) |
Thankfully there was no visble spiders and snake along the way...
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| happy to be out at last! |
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| at last! one more rapel and we're done! |
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| padumihan ng paa! |
Mt. Manalmon summit. Check!
Which means there's one challenge left.... The MONKEY BRIDGE.
Fyi... There's two option in crossing Madlum River:
1. Raft - which cost only 5pesos
2. Monkey Bridge. ( cross at your own risk)
I must say Monkey Bridge really looks scary...I had questions about its safety. Because there's no harness so should one decided to cross and change its mind she must choose whether to let go and fall in the 10 feet water (its been raining since yesterday so it looks murky and the current is deadly) provided you can swim or just endure and cross with shaky legs all the way to the other side.
Out of the seven girls only four of us dared to try the bridge.
Sobrang na stress ako sa Monkey Bridge!
Having a height which barely reaches 5" it was really hard for me especially on the part where the wires sag. It tested my upper body strength because I had to practically "tip toe" my way to end (my friends say I gave them quite a scare seeing me almost hanging) I told myself I had to finish this or they - the boys especially would never let me hear the end of it. :P
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| This is it! |
This is trip is definitely one of my bravest ever. I never expected I will cross out several things on my bucket list in one trip. :) Another bonus for the new friends I gained.
God is really great for creating such beauty. For giving me the opportunity to see and enjoy his creation.
