Wednesday, June 15, 2016

NAPO TO BABAG TALES CIII: Jungle Wil and Pathfinder Tom

BACK IN SEPTEMBER 2009, I met two grizzled veterans of the outdoors at the Gustavian, a high-end restaurant in Banilad, Cebu City. We talked in the noisy and smoky part of the Gustav – The Taproom - where expats gathered, talking about women and football in the same length and breadth with beer-laced breaths reaching you from a mile away. I did not know, at that time, that both have been following my blog and have arranged for this meeting.

That was long time ago and both have gone on separate ways afterwards. The American, Tom Moore, went back to Etats Unis to embark on his high-profile adventures and even got cast in Discovery Channel’s “Dude You’re Screwed”, a high-rating survival reality show which debuted in 2013 and which went into its second season in 2014. Wil Davies – as Welshman as rugby – hopped to and fro Hong Kong and Cebu and, ultimately, settled here chasing that elusive sunset. He is a highly-experienced outdoors educator.


I worked under Wil in Jungle Wild Adventures and, later, teamed up with him to establish the Snakehawk Wilderness School in 2013. It was with Snakehawk that we both got cast in “Native Instinct”, which brought both of us to Guintarcan Island for a “desert island” scene in Cebu and to the Pastolan Aeta village of Hermosa, Bataan for a jungle shoot. The production staff encountered severe technical problems and the show never went on the air.

Except for a brief moment in 2012, we three met again at the Sandtrap in Banilad but that was not the outdoors. That time, Tom was riding on the euphoria of his casting in DYS. Anyway, back in 2009, both were eager to spend the outdoors of Cebu together and they contacted me on the possibility of leading them to our mountains. It did not materialize as extreme weather conditions would not permit it although Wil had, for many times, gone with me.

Today, September 20, 2015, however, things changed favorably for both. Tom and Wil are on the forefront, leading me and the rest of the guys of the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild into our favorite playground of the Babag Mountain Range. Yes, Tom, Wil and I are finally in the outdoors after six long years when they had first suggested that to me in that smoky and noisy room. That long. Listen then to the values of old men telling tales.


Tom would be showing us how to prepare and cook desert fare and the older Wil, now beginning to reveal feebleness of body, is ecstatic over this rare chance to rub elbows again with his old buddy in their hallowed place and, for both of them, on their much younger counterparts at Camp Red. Camp Red is really anchored on their idea of how the outdoors ought to be enjoyed and it is, in a way, their descendants. I am just the conduit of that idea and nurtured it to what it is now.

For the bush-crazy Camp Red people, it is also a rare chance to shake hands with and engage in conversations on the DYS celebrity - Tom aka Col. Tomahawk and Pathfinder Tom - and, for those who have not seen Wil in person, another culture shock. Wil or Jungle Wil, by the way, have appeared together with me in the only surviving video clips of NI posted on its Facebook page and on its Vimeo account. According to producer Matt Everett, it is sort of a “Ray Mears-meets-Bear Grylls” show. Guess who plays “Bear Grylls”?

Tom’s coming is grounded on a survival-reality show which he is planning to produce, direct and participate in and which he intended to shoot entirely in the Philippines for its first season. Tom, Wil and I would each have our own episodes for this show called “Expedition Philippines”. It would have a total of 7-8 episodes which would be participated in by other international survival celebrities as well.


EP would be a real expedition, as what its name suggest, and Tom would be leading this while I would be his second. We are starting our groundwork today to identify and meet the very people who would compose part of the team, based upon my recommendations. Cebu will be our base and possible locations where the team, along with the production crew, would be are the jungles of Bataan and Palawan, islands off Cebu and Samar, and the highlands of the Cordilleras.

After transferring from Guadalupe to Napo, we walk the trail in a long line to the Lower Kahugan Spring, our first rallying point. Everyone got there, including Glenn PestaƱo and another heavy guy. Tom, who have grown fat, got there without any problem but that is the better part. The other half of our route would end at the abandoned Roble Homestead and it would be a bit steep for comfort but it is shady. In the tropics and deserts, shade is your ally.

In spite of that, people got there earlier than expected. Tom had already kneaded the flour for the tamale that he intended to cook when I got there. A fire is born and so is water warmed up for coffee. I never start my work in the outdoors without coffee and coffee tastes better there, be it brewed, in 3-in-1 sachets or anything that tastes like one. The empty homestead got peopled in due time, including the bulkier guys.


Ernie Salomon gets to work in his kitchen without walls. His outdoors experience, his expertise and his resourcefulness to get food fixed in time gets him a slot for EP as the camp fixer. Tom had seen that in photos and now he sees Ernie this close. So is Jhurds Neo, as the expedition officer in charge of logistics acquisition; through his experience with ships, by his integrity and leadership qualities. Both he and Tom got a talk and it is a cinch for Jhurds.

The distaff side among us like Mirasol Lepon, Faith Gomez, Locel Navarro and Francelyn Quijano helped in the meal preparation, together with the guys. By the way, Tom is eyeing a conventional Filipina to work with an international female TV celebrity and an Aeta woman in one episode. There will be auditions for this part and I have many possible candidates who learned from me in the Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp and similar trainings.

Big cauldrons are used, provided by Zene Roble, for cooking the pork adobao and the mixed-vegetable soup. Tom had already cooked the bread in cooking oil and looked more like fat pancakes instead. Me, I rather slurp my warm coffee and choose a spot to talk with both Tom and Wil. Zene offered them native cigarettes made from dried leaves of the Java plum tree (Local name: lomboy, duhat) and the duo smoked it like it is a Chesterfield.

The best part of the activity are the tales which circle around blades. Glenn, as always, is the celebrity when it comes to this. His collections and even his present possessions are the envy of everybody’s. There is no one, when comparing knives with matching history to tell, can match his except, perhaps, Aljew Frasco, but he is hot here. So Glenn claims that honor today. Around him are Jhurds, Dominik Sepe, Johnas Obinas, Justin Abella, Justin Apurado, Jonathan Apurado, Mark Lepon, Nelson Tan, Richie Quijano and a couple of the new guys enjoying the repartee.


The fire is supplied by abundant firewood that are sourced from dried branches and bamboos which the guys efficiently cut to pieces with their blades. Tending the fires are Ernie, Fritz Bustamante and Nyor Pino and an initial shower that did not last for more than five minutes visited the cooking. Fly sheets are hastily cast overhead the hearth and over a table. Cooking is ongoing on a soup of Lima beans which took Ernie longer than usual. Tom helped in the softening of the steaming beans by crushing it with a stainless bucket.

Another torrent of rain visited us, this time it is stronger and it stayed longer. We brave the shock of cold and eat the hot meals at 12:45 under the protection of fly sheets, tarpaulins and the roof of an unfinished house. I always love the rain and embrace it by completely going wet. Why make life difficult by going half-wet and half-dry and, just the same, get drenched when the wind blows in another direction?

It seems Tom has an appointment and he has to go sooner than we expected him to be. We have to fill up then of a ritual which now is standard fare in all Camp Red activities: the blade porn. One by one, a wooden bench becomes a porcupine as all blades are pierced standing up on its point. This is the exclamation point that ends dirt time at Camp Red to the astonishment of Tom and Wil and the new guys with us. They never expected that many!

Tom and Wil went downhill which nobody noticed during the time we were busy packing all our things back to our bags. I follow their wake and sees one set of deep footprints that is pronounced at the heel tips. It belonged to Tom and he is in a hurry. Another set of footprints which imitate the characteristics of a ninja belongs to the much lighter Wil. Both has a five minute headstart. I overtake them on a bend before the path goes down to a depression some meters the footbridge at Napo.

We all transfer to Guadalupe and, from there, to our watering hole in Red Hours. Wil had to go to take his medications which he failed to carry and Tom got hold of a cold glass of the coldest Red Horse beer that we could possibly purchase. Tom eventually says goodbye to that appointment of his and made love with his Red Horse instead. Welcome to the Philippines, colonel!


Document done in LibreOffice 5.1 Writer

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