Dont panic - Go with the flow

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Its only 3 weeks left! After 2 years the time seems to go very quickly. With only a little while left this month has been about getting out to see places that I hadn’t been to yet, planning my travel home (especially the visas), starting to pack up and finish things off.

For two and a half months I have been joined in Lanuza by Niels Batke, a short term volunteer from Accenture Germany. Both having good reasons for doing some sightseeing we jumped on our motorbikes, packed out toothbrushes and went for a weekends sightseeing round Surigao del Sur (our province). It was all going well until part way back on Sunday morning when Niels motorbike pulled up with smoke and a strange noise. We went on-tow back to the nearest town and found a mechanics shop. It took over an hour to find the fault - no engine oil leading to the piston seizing in the cylinder. One of the brilliant things about the Philippines is that you can find a mechanic to strip down your motorbike and fix this sort of problem (and find the spare parts) on a Sunday afternoon. It took until 10am Monday morning to get everything back together then we were on our way and back to Lanuza.

Back at work we have been in top gear to get as much done as possible before I leave. One job we had been meaning to do for a while was to survey the water catchment area as our map of it was incomplete. GPS in hand we set out to do it with the help of Maria who came to visit just before Easter. On the way round we scrambled through some very nice forest and passed some spectacular waterfalls. We even saw a Philippine Cobra which the guide was quick to kill. To a Filipino the only good snake is a dead one!

The opportunity to do a trip I have been thinking about for over a year came up with the Easter holiday. We would raft the river from Ibuan to the nearest City (Tandag) where it opens into the sea. Its about 25km measured on Google earth, no roads and no map - just go with the flow and the river will take you. We found a pair of car inner tubes and set off. The river has sections of rapids with calmer bits in between. The rapids are almost all ok in a rubber tube but we soon learned to keep our bums up so they didn’t bump on the rocks (riding the tube sat with bum in the hole). Lunch and dry clothes were in a small rucksack with a dry bag. It was lots of fun, fantastic scenery, amazed faces on locals that we drifted past and by 5pm we made it to Tandag. The day was finished off by an hour and a half ride on the roof of the jeep back to Lanuza. Great adventure! Surprisingly few bruises and scrapes.

My last couple of weeks will be spent packing, chasing paperwork for my trip home (5 visas needed and only 2 of the countries have consular offices here) and catching as much late season surf as possible. I will be making a presentation at the town hall before I leave which is going to be videoed by VSO. Movie stardom at last! Only one more blog from the Philippines but don’t worry I plan to keep it up one entry per country on the way back to Europe.

Hope you’re all having fun. Matt

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