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Published: October 21st 2008
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One step higher!
The rewarding part of this hike is the time when you stop for a rest and look at the world in a different point of view. Its been a while me and my buddies have gone to places together. Most of my local trips are without them. after college, well we have lives to live and careers to build. But there is always that binds us together which is the spirit of fun and adventure. Way back our school days, we only had one hiking trip and that was in Leon, Iloilo. My friends tasked me to plan hiking trip such as that. But due to time and and work, I lost track of that promise to them. Not until October, 2008. Most local mountaineers in Iloilo had been to Mt. Napulak. Its found in the small town of Igbaras, maybe one hour away from Iloilo city. So I said, well we give it a shot to go there by ourselves. Napulak is 1200ft. above sea level, with scattered vegetation surrounding it. During the 1980's to the early 1990's, it was claimed to be the strong hold the leftist National People's Army (NPA). But at the moment, the place is free of them.
I called my friends, and it turned out only three came along, namely Juven, Jerwyn and Sasha. All where in high spirit for
Largest Flower in the World
We pass by the world renowned Rafflesia. It is only a smaller version, but having seen one is a milestone in my life. the upcoming trip. Then October 10 came. When I woke up that morning, God bless us with a promising weather. The weather forecast days before where cloudy skies and scattered rainfall. I said, good, cloudy skies is what we need. As we traveled to Igbaras, the sky turned dark. Guess what happened next? For crying out loud! Please God, no rain today! And all are spirit just went out the door. It rained so hard as if it will not rain for days. With the present situation, I've decided for plan B. We will not hike that day, but will spent the night in Igbaras, then hike the following day. And the plan was set.
When we reached the town of Igbaras, we went to the town hall. We registered ourselves in the town tourism office. We waited for the rain to stop, but that didn't happened. As planned, we took a motorcycle from the town to the jump off point and the foot of the mountain. Because of the heavy rain, it will be difficult for the motorcycle to cross the river. When we reached the river, we cross it on foot. Then another motorcycle ride until we
Top of the world!
A glimpse of what its like to be on top of the world! reach the jump off point. Because it was still raining, plan B was our only option. We stayed under a waiting shade and waited for our guide to arrive. After 10 minutes, Mr. Morot came. We were surprise by his first words. He said, "lakat ta, saka nata"...."lets go, will start our climb now".. And considering of the heavy rain and all. Well, with out further clarifications, we started our climb at exactly 10:30Am. We put out all our rain gears and started to walk. During this time, Im still puzzled by his decision. Well, his our guide, he knows better than I do. Well, all of you guys knows what its like to hike....... walk........... rest............walk............. rest............. you get the picture..
In the middle of it all, Jerwyn's sandals gave up due to the sticky mud. As if it wasn't enough, sasha's shoes also gave up. They borrowed slippers from the houses we pass by. Happy to say, people there are so friendly and so willing to lend their stuffs for us. Pretty neat...... At around 2Pm, we reached half way of our trail and it was the last water source. We stopped for one hour, had our
Higher than the clouds!
Walk through the clouds..... the guiding motto of the CLOUD TREKKERS. lunch and a little dip in the stream. Nobody would thought that there was a near by Rafflesia growing in the bard of an old tree. Rafflesia is the world's largest flower. But the one we found is approximately 16inches in diameter. But having seen one is a big milestone for me. After our lunch and break, we headed once more.
At nearly 900ft, The rain stopped. Thank God! But it was a blessing. If it wasn't for the rain, our climb was a little bit much harder. The rain brought cool temperature, we only battled leg cramps and little on thirst.
At around 5Pm, we reached the summit! Success! Well, we posed for the picture. More pictures, and more pictures. After 30 minutes of picture taking, we climb the stone crown of Mt. Napulak. From there, we had a clear picture of the flat planes of Iloilo City and its surrounding towns. At our back, was the antique province. It was so beautiful. From there I can say the whole trip was worth it. I could stay there forever, hehe! The sun was setting fast, so decided to go down and set our tents and prepared are
Victor!
A closer look to the main man himself. dinner. We had dinner, chat and shared stories as the night gloom. In the middle of everything, our guide put out his logbook and wrote are names. In one column, the logbook asked for "name of the group/org". We dont have an official name yet. I promised them that I will think of something. We were surrounded by thick fogs. Every time we talked, our breathe can be seen, well that was pretty much cool when you lived your entire life in a tropical country. At around 10Pm, we decided to call the night. Went to our tents and slept the night away.
At 6Am, I woke up due to the call of nature.and suddenly the name for our group pop out: CLOUD TREKKERS. So, that's it! We are now the Cloud Trekkers. I woke the entire team, and set out to prepare breakfast. We cook and ate all our canned foods so that are bags will be off from the heavy loads. After that heavy breakfast, we packed our stuffs, had our last pictures and set off. We left Napulak at 9:15Am. We arrived at the jump off point at 2Pm. Phew, that was a hell of a
Mt. Napulak
The majestic mountain stands high! If you can look closely, the peak of the mountain has a crown rock. If you are from afar, it looks like the mountain has a nipple. trip because it was a sunny day, and the heat of the sun is killing us. But the entire experience was a blast!
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kayzee
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wow!
Wish I went with you guys! But I don't think I could have made it through the hike... hahaha nice pics! Ask me again for the next adventure but this time can it involve a body of water? I'm better at that..