My Wet and Wild Mt. Balagbag Experience!

It was 2am last Aug 18 when I woke up by a continuous sound coming not from my alarm clock but for the continuous rain in our rooftop. For a mere 10 mins, I just lie awake, thinking whether I will still be joining this daytrek adventure or not. I have gotten a few things to ponder:

1. It was raining hard the whole night, Am I ready to be soaked the whole day?

2. Its my first time to join a climb with people  I haven’t meet personally, Am I willing to trust them with myself?

As I think about it, the more reasons I got to say no, but after 1 hour around 3:30 am, I found myself riding a bus going to Cubao,,, Hahahaha..

Our meeting place is at Jollibee Tungko. I have no idea where it is located. I was just told by our Team Leader Sir Melo to ride a bus with the signboard to Tungko. I was shocked to be asked by the bus conductor that from Cubao the fare in an ordinary bus is already 38 pesos, so i therefore assume that its must be far from cubao, later I have learned that Tungko is already in San Juan Del Monte, Bulacan. (Ooops!, My poor navigational skills is always taking over me.)

From Cubao, we rode a jeepney to our Jump-off in Licao- fare is 26 pesos. Our group is composed of 7 members, headed by our TL – Sir Melo, Doc Boyet( yes, we have a doctor in our group, I also don’t believe it until I confirmed myself), Sir Dennis, Sir JayR, Mam Fredda, Mam Janice and myself. All were new to me, as a proof, I recalled when I entered Jollibee, I asked a couple of hikers (I just assume based on what they wear) if they know Sir Melo, and woolah, I am asking Sir Melo himself.. (Feeling awkward).

As we were dropped in our jump-off, the rain also started. Silently Im still hoping that the weather will be good but its like the fight between Gilas and Iran,  I want the team to win, but I know we can’t. We started as plan, going to the trail for the river trekking. But the continuous downpour of rain in Rodriguez Rizal has resulted the river to swell and be not possible to cross. We did not want to endangered our lives but we also did not want to postpone our trip so we decided to try the traditional route to the summit. It was a blessing in disguise, since the traditional route is relatively easy, we had this opportunity to further acquaint ourselves with one another and soon found out interesting facts about each other. We have a student, a 1^st timer,  3 seasoned climbers, a travel enthusiast, and of course yours truly the cutest among the group.

The rail to the summit is interesting, after hours of rains, there can be a minute of breaks which allows us some view of the community. It was nice to see a vast array of sights.

It was raining the whole time. We were fully drenched, we see nothing at the summit except vast and vast of fog, but nevertheless I enjoyed so much of this trip. I almost ran out of my daily stocks of jokes.

Since it was raining hard and we were already cold, we decided to go down immediately. Going down proves to be easier as always if will be doubled,,, no tripled with excessive laughter along the way. Soon enough we were back in the jump-off already then we decided to drink some liquors to heat our already cold bodies.

It was after 5 pm, we decided to ride again the jeep that will take us back to Tungko. It was indeed a long and wet bus ride again to Batangas.

As I coiled to sleep, and recount the activities I had for the day. I confirmed that really “ Its not the destination that counts, It’s the journey, Its not how many mountains you had climbed, but its how many friends you gained along the way”.

 Will I joined them for the next climb? Definitely!