I
MISSED THE ROBLE HOMESTEAD. It had been sometime that I and my wards
from the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild had done dirt-time
there. Dirt time is nothing more than dirtying the hands in a
no-nonsense real outdoor activity. The place where the Roble family
had lived is now abandoned after Fele was injured last July 3, 2015
by a gunshot wound caused by a neighbor, Timoteo Gabasan.
The
suspect, who is still on the loose, threw out some threats of harm to
hikers and friends of Fele. It is a cause for alarm to visitors,
hikers and people and so I advised them to put off any outdoor
activity, for the time being, at their place going to Mount Babag.
They had listened and followed my advice. Despite that, I frequent
the place on different occasions on other routes to test how true and
real were the threats.
There
really were threats and the suspect was even angry at how I am able
to penetrate the place last week where he is believed to have been
hiding. To test again that menace, I decide to visit again the Roble
homestead and planned on to stay there the whole day with the bushmen
of Camp Red for our dirt-time. We are not afraid of anybody and the
Babag Mountain Range is not off-limits.
On
the parking lot of Guadalupe church are people who will again defy
that situation: Ernie Salomon, Glenn Pestaño, Dominik Sepe, the
couple Mark and Mirasol Lepon, Nelson Tan, Mel Mesias, Jonathan and
Justin Apurado, Locel Navarro, Bogs Belga, Nyor Pino, Fritz
Bustamante and guest Ariel Lim. We leave at 07:40 for Napo, right
after securing our food ingredients.
Sapangdaku
Creek is clear, robust and at a fast current. The ground is wet and
many parts muddy. I am at the head of the column with Glenn behind
me. Glenn had not been seen outdoors lately and have missed many
episodes of our dirt-time. He has a lot of ground to cover,
especially with his physical conditioning. He is my responsibility
and I would not want him out of my sight. I would love that he stays
behind me and the rest will have to bear the slower pace.
We
reach Lower Kahugan Spring and take a respite. So far so good for
Glenn. I fill up my empty bottle and enjoy my first drink of water.
I carry my Lifeguard USA rucksack and it is filled to the brim even
though I carried light. My AJF Gahum is on my side happy to slap its
weight on my left thigh. It is a weight that I welcome anytime any
day or night on any place or weather. All carry their blades openly,
including our ladies.
We
resume after that well-deserved short rest. The path go a little
steep and would challenge Glenn big time. I still insist that we
hike on by his pace. Along the way, I forage the tender tops of
turkey berry (Local name: talong-talong) which I would mix
with the rest of the food ingredients we bought at Guadalupe. That
is the part of the wild shrub which is considered edible.
Surprisingly,
even at Glenn's pace, we reach the old homestead at 10:00. Earlier,
I feared that we would arrive later than that, at the most, at 11:00.
Immediately, a few of us begun to forage firewood. The first order
of things is building a fire intended to boil water for coffee.
Coffee is legendary outdoors, regardless if it is brewed or just an
instant one. I do not mind; just as it looks, smells and tastes like
coffee!
Ernie
begins to claim an abandoned table and starts his preparation of our
food. Locel, Mirasol and Nyor assists him in slicing the ingredients
while Bogs, Fritz and Ariel keep feeding the fire with more wood.
Jhurds, Dom, Nelson, Mel and Mark are in a conspiracy of eliciting
Chuck Norris tales from Glenn and wishing he would part some of his
stash of prized folders.
Fele's
brothers, Zene and Roger joined us for a talk and how I am glad that
their concerns about their own lives have lessened. They do not take
chances and be complacent. They are still monitoring the suspect's
whereabouts, whose choices of travel are now confined to Kalunasan,
in Bocawe and on the other side of the mountain down to Bonbon. I
liked that the suspect is pestered by his own shadow. One of these
days, the long arm of the law will catch up with him.
Lunch
got served at exactly 12:00 and we make it as feast-ful as possible
with soup that was made from ingredients coming from the streetside
market and from what we picked up along the way. Grilled pork makes
it more feasty plus Ernie’s signature side dish of raw
cucumber-and-tomato mix in vinegar. Since there were more food than
we can consume, we shared some of it to Roger, Zene and son, Jerome.
After
cleaning up the dishes and dirty pots, I suggest to everyone to make
fire by friction by any means. I am preparing the guys their
worthiness if ever I tap each one of them to be my assistants should
there be bushcraft and survival trainings given out to institutions
or group of individuals just like I did recently at the Philippine
Independence Bushcraft Camp, to volunteer responders of the
Archdiocese of Capiz and the DRRMO elements of the Municipality of
Lilo-an (Cebu). They should prove their worth.
Teaching
bushcraft is never easy. You talk and you give demonstrations. In
between, you have to prepare meals, make fire, cook, fetch water,
drink, walk, check camp safety, make a latrine, source materials for
your lectures and a little time for yourself. I cannot do all these
things all at the same time and so I need guys who are flexible. I
can promise them a little something for them in return if ever I am
requested to teach again in the near future.
The
guys begin work. They find dry bamboo poles and some pieces of soft
wood. For the bamboos, they split it into pieces where it can be
rubbed against each other. Three sets of two individuals each are on
to it. Mirasol and Mark and Nelson and Mel are doing the planer rub
while Nyor and Justin does the saw method. A bowdrill set was
fashioned from out of the soft wood and Dom and Jonathan pushes their
effort on it.
Smoke
emit from all methods but only the bowdrill was able to light a fire.
It is indeed an amazing afternoon of perspiration and burnt smoke.
I am satisfied but I wish they would be better than today. Practice
is wanting and I wish they would also find time for that. It is
expected that paying clients demand such results to justify the worth
of what they pay you to teach them.
I
prepare myself for future trainings by cutting two pieces of soft
wood with the folding saw of my Victorinox SAK Trailmaster. The wood
is about 2 inches thick by 4 inches wide but the superior design of
the small saw make short work of it. I would carry home the wood and
it shall become part of the things when I travel to do trainings.
We
wrap up our activity at 15:00 and say goodbye to Roger, Zene and
Jerome. We waited for the threat-maker to crawl to us but he never
came. We were ready to bash his head open. It would have been the
least we could do to him. Anyway, we take the same route and reach
Napo at 16:30. It is too early to call it a day and so we spend it
at the Red Hours Convenience Store.
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