Mt. Batulao

It seems like all my friends have been to Mt. Batulao but me. Ewan ko ba pero lagi conflict sa schedule ko (as ussual) I end always end up just reading blogs or looking at my friends "been to Batulao" pictures on facebook.

So again when one of my favorite couple (Rey and Reggie) suggested out of nowhere a hike in batulao I was like "finally!". And being days away before my birthday - imagine how excited I become (last year i got to celebrate it in Zambales - Mt. Pundaquit and Anawangin Cove) and this year I get to celebrate it in Mt. Batulao!

We didnt really plan it as in. Just agreed to the date and time and since we all have to work on a saturday the best possible plan would be: NIGHT TREK! I dont know but i believe none of us have been night  trekking before but we were assured that its relatively easy - one can even do without a guide so night trek it is.

Because really how hard can it be as long as we make sure we stay on the path with our headlight and nothing can go wrong... Except none of us expected to rain on that day! particularly in the night!!! and because we have so much faith in Accuweather it didn't deferred our plan. So we're on the Road before seven pm - oh! did i mention that its raining kinda hard on the way to tagaytay with slight to moderate fog??? :)

We reached evercrest golf club at around 8pm (I think) at this point we barely see the road because of the thick fog (we we're even joking about the movie Wrong turn because at some point it really feels like one) we we're basically navigating trough Ipad / GPS to find our way. We even have to backtrack from where we began just to make sure we're on the right road. Bert and I we're ready to go out of the car and walk around to see if maybe we can find anyone to ask for direction. luckily we we're able to get direction from a passing car he i can still imagine the look on his face when he learned that we we're hiking batulao on bad weather.

He said "oh wow, goodluck" while looking at the sky and then us - TRANSLATION: "this bunch is crazy!"

Rainy Hike (Rey, Regie, Feng, Bert, Yours Trully, Hakob)

The original plan was to not go for a guide but because of the weather we decided to get one (better safe than sorry). So after stuffing our groceries (yes we bought plenty) to our bags and a prayer we started walking.

@ the registration area

Since its raining all day the path was sooooooo muddy as in! I could hug Bert for insisting I wear the rubber shoes than my ever favorite sandals because I will surely have my "pabebe" moment once my feet will be covered with mud - I'm sure hindi lang mud ang ingredient ng lupa!. Its dark so its not only the mud that one should worry by wearing sandals there's thorns, sharp rocks, barbed wire and broken glasses.

Fortunately for us the rain already stops on our way up but for the occasional drizzle. We didn't even bother to wear our jackets because tho the weather i a lot nicer still going up still takes effort. Feng and Bert have been to Batulao before and that the trail we're walking is very narrow so we should really watch our steps. There were even a part when I cant practically see the person in front of me it was like i was encase in a wall of fog that even my headlight can penetrate. For a moment there it felt like i was on my own (good thing I'm not the "I'm scared of the dark kind of girl).

Camp 1

We started hiking at nine and reached the camp site (slightly crowded) around 12am. So after finding a good spot to pitch our tent, get our selves clean - a little, cooked our midnight snack and chat a lot. By 4am we we're again cooking, since its my pre-birthday celebration I decided to cooked Carbonara for breakfast :) and started breaking camp at 5am we wanted to start early - cant wait to see Batulao in full daylight.

Tough Girls set up their own tent!

Gilber and Jacob

Spell D-I-R-T-Y

UPHSL Commerce Buddies

Carbonaraaaa!

Sandals pa more!

And it was - is really a sight! Green everywhere! A very HAPPY Birthday to me indeed! *happy dance" 

@ the Campsite

Love this shot! (Brought to you by Summit mineral water!)

Aliw sa Fog

FENG

Glad I was not afraid of Height

HAKOB

REGIE

REY

They we're not joking when they said that the trail is very narrow - one wrong step and you'll be tumbling down the mountain. There's a part where we had to walk on a very narrow rocky part, literally one foot at a time. One foot in front of the other or side stepping or if the wind is feeling playful crawling will be an option or else one can topple over and unlike the other trail no grass will cushion you on either side but pure rock.

We went from the new trail to going to the old - that means we practically going around the mountain. From camp 10 (peak) we had to rappel down - my favorite part of the trek :) and from there it was almost all down.

GILBERT

And because we cant have enough pictures it took us a little longer going down.

I don't have my favorite mountain because every mountain I've been to has its own unique personality. Sure this one have been kind to me - I have very few "dulas" moment but as always it gave me new friends, gave me happy memories and as always made me appreciate life more - made me appreciate ME more. That I shouldn't looked so hard in finding what it takes to be happy. Be uberly thankful for the Gift of life.

Because being with friends is happy. Soaking in the rain then seeing the sun shines is happy. Standing on the peak and seeing Gods gift of life is happy. Being ME is happy. :)

   (video credits to REY https://www.facebook.com/RRWebGraphics)