AS
I HAD PROMISED to myself and to all those that are following my
Facebook updates, that I should spend all my Sundays in a month
outdoors and, should there be five Sundays of a month, then I go out
five times. It is not difficult. In fact, it is a no-brainer. I
still believe that I can enjoy quality outdoors even if I have been
to a place a thousand times. What do you think?
It
is just a matter of practicality, a different perspective and less of
daydreaming. I do not make my life difficult. I gladly adapt to a
very favorable location which our friends in Metro Manila can not.
Over there, they may climb their nearest mountains but they have to
travel far and they have to spend more time, money and effort. Here
in Cebu, we could easily pick any route and place as easily as one
would change numbers of a mobile phone.
The
presence of the Babag Mountain Range is a blessing to us Cebu
residents. Not only would it protect us from typhoons passing over
on the other side of the island, it is a mountain range where there
are so many features. You name it. It has solitary peaks. It has
ridges for a three-peak traverse, even a 5-peak, if you use your
imagination. It has waterfalls. It has forests and pockets of
jungle. It has clean streams. What is more important is it is all
FREE!
You
go to any place and, most likely, you will have to pay usage fees,
entrance fees, guide fees, porterage fees, parking fees and etcetera
and you get what you pay, even less than what you would expect. You
rant in Facebook because you were not issued receipts or the fees
exacted were much higher than what was agreed and even the guides do
not know the places. It sucks but you go back again and again and
you rant and rant and rant where, supposedly, you had learned from
the first encounter or from someone else’s rant.
Make
your life simple. Make use of what you have or the place most
accessible to your weekend pursuits. Make use of only yourself or
with a few friends. The less the better. More people would mean
more noise and the line stretches far. More people means higher
chances of accidents and you cannot go intimate with nature. More
people also means ignoring the sanctity of mountains and all your
shoes leave a mark on every blade of grass while converting a muddy
trail into a primitive water slide.
Stay
humble. Dress simply. Color of your attire says so much of you.
Nod your head or give a greeting to any local you meet. Show a
smile. Make them locals important by engaging them in conversations
if you happen to share a shade under a tree. Ask before you shoot
pictures. Share your chocolate bar or biscuit to a child. Be
attentive. They have priority over a trail. Give way. Remember, we
are just visiting.
Come
to this mountain with an open mind. Leave your worries behind.
Travel light. Even some great things you learned in a university
classroom or of complex problems you inherited in a corporate
boardroom are unwanted luggage here. Seek solitude and dump
technology for it does not work all the time here. Develop your own
philosophies in life in the company of nature’s soothing sounds.
Place your heart close to the ground.
Do
not hurry. Do not be consumed about time. On the other hand, relish
every moment with your camera. Stop often and be connected with
nature. Understand the tale of each insect, bird, plant or stream as
you move by and, who knows, you may get answers from them of life’s
most perplexing troubles. God moves in mysterious ways from those
who calls out His Name.
I
may sound poetic here but nature had made the best out of people.
The mountains heal. It is your ticket to regain your self-worth and
your re-acceptance with society or with your relations. It is not
done overnight nor it is a scientific process. Your frequent
participation in the celebration of life among mountains is a
testament of your maturity. Wisdom are inherited everywhere there
and it makes you more human.
The
mountains never failed to lure me back to its bosom. How about you?
Come out often else it will be off-limits someday. Remember this:
Land developers, big business and the government always win over
environmentalists and small farmers. Most of the time. The Babag
Mountain Range may not be like what you enjoy today in 10 to 15 years
time. I do not know but it is a disconcerting trend which the greedy
always win.
It
is a sad idea and I can live with that, although with a heavy heart.
While it is still blissfully free, I visit her again on this 26th day
of April 2015. Going along with me is Ernie Salomon, old man he is
but the best outdoors cook in Cebu, hands down. It is a warm day but
it is not a problem. I just want myself to be ready and stay fit
when two big adventures would get hold of me next week.
Tomorrow,
I would go to northern Cebu so I would engage on a solo on this
island's swampy isthmus which no outdoorsman had done before. Then
on Friday, I will be with the Exploration Team of the Cebu Highlands
Trail Project for a long hike in the southernmost part. Both
activities would be very demanding physically and psychologically but
just a Sunday visit to the Babag Mountain Range can make a big
difference on my preparations.
The
weather is fine today. I follow Ernie as I focus more in releasing
all the stress I have accumulated while planning and preparing the
details of that two big events I mentioned and of my day job. Today
I just go with the flow of Ernie's pace. I throw a lot of jokes at
the old man, getting some in return. I know the trail like it is the
back of my hand. We did not rest until we reach Lower Kahugan
Spring.
Then
something very loathsome comes into my view. The pump tender guy of
last week. I never forgot him. He never listened to me. He threw
his empty chemical packaging back into the stream, along with empty
fertilizer bottles, that I had collected in his behalf. He cannot
escape now unlike the last time where he was not at the scene. He is
the perfect audience for a piece of my mind.
I
take a picture of him and I proceed to “Chapter One”. I raised
my voice above the din that the pump produced and I think I was
spectacular there. He was trembling and pitiful. He begins clearing
every waste he has strewn this morning. He has nowhere to go and I
pointed to him more packaging he hid underneath vegetation and he
picked that up too and pile it in one place away from the stream.
Then
I remind him that I complained about him last week to the auxiliary
police of Sapangdaku and that I will effect a citizen's arrest on him
should I find his rubbish again when I come back in the afternoon. I
am dead serious. Before leaving, I reminded him who I was and he
stared unsteadily as I look at him in the eye. I have no business
anymore here and it is time to go up to the Roble homestead.
Ernie
is laughing as the level of the route begins to go steep. The guy
that I had scolded seemed to him to have pissed in his pants. Funny.
I did not notice that. We squeeze into a bitter gourd farm before
going on to more steep terrain. We arrive at the Roble homestead and
we take rest for a while. I have a small cargo which would be useful
to Fele Roble. It is a small hand-cranked drill. It will be useful
boring holes on their unfinished house.
Ernie
gets busy making a fire while I fetch water for the pot. Need to
boil water for coffee. I got my coffee and another serving. I
believe Ernie is fixing something fit for this day. I cook rice
while he pursues the viand. I cook a lot of rice so I could include
the Roble family into our meal. The cooking took early to finish and
we are on to an early meal as well. Pansit, a local noodle
version, is the food and it is wonderfully done.
Green
coconuts appear and I open one with a different technique. Instead
of chopping off the bottom with a big blade like we used to do, I
pierced the top with the smaller Seseblade NCO knife and remove the
unwanted part. It is a neat square hole. Skills with a knife are
very important in bushcraft. You learn it by transforming this
instrument instead into a useful tool. That way, you will appreciate
better your knife.
I
enjoy seeing Josel and his cousin firing at will with my Canon Ixus
camera at just about anything. Afterwards, I begin to pack my things
into my bag. Fele's wife, Tonia, gave me a flat bottle containing
pure honey which Fele had helped collect from a big beehive a few
days ago. It is so sweet! I thank them and bade them goodbye. No
need to overexert. I have to remind myself that I have to rise up
early tomorrow so an equally early departure is essential for today.
I
pass by Lower Kahugan Spring. The drums, the water pump and the
pumpman are not there anymore. The place is cleaned up. I look under
the weeds and bushes. I found no empty fertilizer packaging. No
empty plastic bottles for chemicals. Well, at least the lesson of
“Chapter One” was plain understandable.
Document
done in LibreOffice 4.3 Writer
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