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| Climbing the Majestic Mt. Apo. |
I have known 2012 as my travel year as I went to more than 20 destinations, be it mountain, falls, beach, or an adventure trip. I have won the WOWtripper of The Year as 18 of those destinations I made were with WOWtrippers.com. It is a travel agency that caters to adventurous people on a budget-friendly itinerary. They promote mostly of the local tourism and how beautiful our country. As a prize, I will spend a long weekend at the highest mountain in the Philippines, Mount Apo. So, why not the beach? Or maybe, somewhere to relax? I was hesitant to do it since I’m not a mountaineer. Though I have trained for the last six months, run almost everyday and made my way up and down the stairs of MRT’s Ayala Station, I don’t think I could do it. I have climbed the rocky Mt. Tapulao as a tune-up climb where we hiked from 4:00 am to 5:30 pm from the jump-off to the bunker. But still, it made me re-think of climbing the highest summit in the country.
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| Zip-lining at Camp Sabros |
Through the urge of my friends
and travel buddies, I found myself on the airport straight from work and bound to Davao
City. Our group will meet at Davao International Airport before heading up to
the jump-off at Digos City. We had lunch along the way. But first, we went to
Camp Zabros to try the dual zipline and skyride.
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| Bananas and bumpy ride to the jump-off. |
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| Fresh produce farm along the trail to Sitio Paradise. |
We rode a truck all the way to
the jump-off. It was a bumpy ride passing by plantations of different fresh
produce and cut-flower plants. The sky was dark and Tropical Depression Crising was
ready for a downpour anytime. From the jump-off, we hiked through a vegetable
plantation all the way up to Sitio Paradise. I was so exhausted that time since I
haven’t slept for a day now. We arrived at Sitio Paradise at 5:00 pm. We camped out near
a basketball court. The place was nice since there were lots of flowering
plants with colorful varieties. It was a cold evening. It rained hard that
night and until the morning. Our guides prepared a sumptuous dinner of Steamed Rice, Chicken Halang-halang, and Stir-fried Vegetables.
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| Drench by Tropical Depression Crising at Baroring River. |
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| Camping at Godi-Godi. |
The following day, we started
hiking at 8:00 am through the woods and mossy forest of Kapatagan Trail. It was
raining hard that we were all wet even in our ponchos. My first rule on
coming to the mountains is to water-proof everything. All my things were in a
zip-plastic. Inside my bag was a large plastic bag were I kept all my things.
But still, I felt as though my bag has doubled its weight as I walked through
the rainy trail. We passed by Upper Sabwag. We had an early lunch at Baroring River and made it to Godi-Godi
at 2:00 pm. The place has a lot of trash. Our guide told us that we should make it a day and camped out
there. We cannot make it through the Boulders that afternoon since it was still
raining so hard and the fog was so low. There was a big chance of us getting lost
in the boulders with all those thick fog. There was a network signal there. We
passed time talking to each other and hearing the raindrops on our tent. It was
2:00 am when I woke up wet. The rainwater has made through inside the tent. It
was still dark outside and the rain was still hard. At 5:00 am, I came out of
the tent and check on others. Most of us were up that night and wet.
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| Morning at the Godi-Godi Campsite. |
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| On our way to the Boulders. |
Our local guides prepared a heavy
breakfast. I’m not a heavy eater in the morning. So, I was trembling with
hunger by the time we got to the boulders. It was an agony. We left Godi-godi
at 8:00 am, passed by a mossy forest. We climb, literally, along the berry
hill. We had to stop a while at the boulders to snap some picture-perfect
memory and eat wild berries. The rain has stopped that morning and the sun was coming out from a
two-day break. The air was so heavy that the smell of sulfur was almost suffocating. My backpack has doubled
its weight and we had to climb an 87 degree-wall from the dry lake of Boracay Viewpoint to the crater lake. It was amazing! It was foggy at the summit and we had to run
around just to get a good view at the top. We had a late lunch at the campsite after a 15-minute descend
from the summit. It was so cold up there that the breeze sends chills through
my whole wet body.
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| Sulfur vents at the Boulders. |
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| The breathtaking Lake Venado. |
That afternoon, we descended to
make camp at Koong. As we made it through the slippery and muddy trail, we could see the breathtaking view of Lake Venado. Not until before dark when we reached the lake.
Descending was rough. I have countless of slips and slides through the muddy
trail. But the view in front of me was so exquisite. The fog comes and goes
making a peek-a-boo sight of the tremendous lake. The trees surrounding it were
like a broccoli with thick uneven trunk and a chunk of green leaves on top.
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| The Crater Lake of Mt. Apo. |
It was a starry night and the
moon was bright outside our tent. There was a rainshower from time to time
making the campsite damp. It was a cold night. The air blows heavily at our
tents making a whistle-like sound. We had an early dinner that evening. We were
already a day late on our itinerary and we had no coffee or any liquor to fight
the cold night.
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| Chilling at the campsite after a long rainy walk in the park. |
The following day, our fourth day
of expedition, the day was gloomy and cold. We made our way to the swamp by
Lake Venado through the Kidapawan Trail. Kidapawan is in South Cotabato. The
trail thereafter was muddy and wet with water coming down from the mountain. Locals said that a lot of branded shoes are out in that swamp trapped and left by the unfortunate owners. Lucky for our group, no one left their shoes through the thigh-deep swamp. We passed by
a few stairs made of bamboos. We had lunch at Mainit Camp. The trail had a number of river-crossing through the sulfuric gush of water, but the most memorable for me was crossing the Marble River.
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| Climbing down the bamboo stairs at the Kidapawan Trail. |
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| The last bamboo bridge to Agco. |
The day was exhausting by the
time we have reached Lake Agco. There was a big hot spring that emits smoke and
smells of sulfur. After 7 hours of descend, we finally reached Lake Agco Resort. We took a dip in a mud spring to ease our body pain.
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| Mt. Apo at the back. |
Though we were supposed to spend the night there, we left the resort right after we cleaned ourselves. The ride from Kidapawan to Davao
City was long. The jeepney driver was driving fast like a road maniac. I can feel
the exhaustion and soreness in every bit of muscle in my body, but I had to
keep my eyes open for I don’t want to die asleep on that ride. Looking at Mount
Apo from afar made me realized how lucky I am to climb the majestic mountain
and how fortunate of me to have survived it.
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| Morning at Lake Venado and our last day of trekking. |
Special thanks to the following:
WOWtrippers for the trip;
Klur Relayo and Ryan Salazar for most of the pictures;
Our local guides Bigboy, Vincent, Michael, and Gab;
and to everyone in our group for the memories and singing 'Dito'.
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