I
COULD NOT HAVE BEEN more happy today, January 27, 2017. It is
because this is the day when I would put the southern leg of the
Thruhike behind me. It is also home ground for me. Day Eleven
promises to be something worth cherishing because, at the end of this
day’s journey, I will be home. Who would not be? I aim to snare
that two days rest incentive before proceeding on the northern leg.
That two days rest would be good enough to check on the loose ends of
my planning and preparations for the remainder of the Thruhike.
The
two policemen from the Mabolo Police Station who have spent an overnight
watch over us are leaving early to make their report to
headquarters and to enjoy a well-deserved day off. I felt very
grateful of this gesture and my thanks to them as well as to their
superiors. Jonathaniel Apurado is making the breakfast soup as
inviting as ever by adding shreds of spicy squid and cooking another
fare of chorizo Bilbao. Washed it all with coffee and my last bottle
of Yakult Cultured Milk.
After
checking on my blisters, we packed our things as orderly as we had
done many times before and made ready for downstairs to say thanks to
the people of Buot, Cebu City, who had been a kind host for us. The
sun had risen and warm but it is blotted out by Mount Samboryo and
the Babag Mountain Range. We crossed the hanging bridge which
spanned over the Bonbon River at 08:15 onto the other side. We
follow a very very rough road until we reach a landmark and
transferred to a trail.
We
passed by a water source and filled full our water bottles. We will
not cook meals anymore but we just want to ensure that we have
adequate water to rehydrate. It is just insurance since I am
planning of lightening up our loads by giving away our food along the
way. The excitement of walking on my playground and of going home
raised my adrenaline a bit and I have to control the mind lest I
would break down midway. The trail goes up and up over places where
you would not meet people.
I
did meet people. A woman and his young son are going down to a
school in Buot. The boy is already late for the morning session or
maybe too early for the afternoon. Life to someone living on the
hinterlands is really hard. The boy has to learn it the hard way,
walking far to school and back to home, sometimes on an empty
stomach. Most of the time, it rains, making it harder still to get
that education. Some of these kids do not finish elementary and
became what their parents were: marry young and rear many children.
Life
is really unfair. We have these kids in the city pampered by their
parents and who could not do things on their own. These kids took
for granted electricity, tap water, instant food on the table,
constant attention and good roads. They have the Internet and the
malls to keep them entertained and allowance money to spend. I have
a soft spot in my heart for folks living on the mountains. The Cebu
Highlands Trail is designed to give them opportunity to meet people
and tourists and nurture friendship and to widen their knowledge of
the world that they do not know. This Thruhike is for them.
I
am now over the obstacle called Mt. Samboryo and a saddle entices me
to take a trail on a knife edge which do not appear to be one. Then
there is a wide meadow where there is a lone house. The view is so
breathtaking but my attention is only to a family living there. It
seems the woman reared her three young girls all by herself. We left
them our remaining food supply like rice, coffee, chocolate drinks,
powdered juice, bread, biscuits, chorizo Bilbao, dried squids, Knorr
soups, soy sauce, cooking oil, vinegar and our goodwill. My bag is
strangely light now yet it really was charity and kindness which made
it lighter.
She
had remembered me from last December where me and some friends left
chocolate bars and biscuits for her and her three girls so they will
enjoy the spirit of Christmas, which is as alien as ET for folks like
her who are in dire poverty. I know how it felt with an empty
stomach everyday waiting for food to drop from out of the sky. In
fact, she and her children were foraging for food among the deepest
thickets when I came today. The woman was most grateful and my heart
wept for I could do nothing more.
I
am grateful too for Derek Manuel of Derek’s Classic Blade Exchange,
Aljew Frasco of Titay’s Liloan Rosquillos, Atty. Jose Mari Gochanco
of GV Tower Hotel, Lester Padriga, Juliet Molina, Adolfo Olmedo,
Percival Espina, Atty. Bruce Ragas, Emerson Benoza, Gian Carlo Jubela
and Sheila Mei Abellanosa of Adrenaline Romance, Wilma Rellora, Alvin
John Osmeña, and the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild, for
opening up their purses so I could pursue this Thruhike with Doc Jon
and to finance the food, fuel and other expenses needed. Without
these fine gentlemen and ladies, I could not have shared something to
our poorest brethren living in unimaginable circumstances.
This
Thruhike, I began to discover, is an interesting and enriching
experience. It is a pilgrimage of the heart and the spirit. My mind
goes empty of worldly ideas and things and focuses only on the scenes
at hand and on the people I met. There is so much to learn from what
you see and hear along the route as much as people try to learn
something from you. The silence of the hills is simply marvellous
right at its wildest and emptiest stretches. This is what I
experienced on the southern leg. The other half might be different
or it might be more than that. I do not know but it remains to be
seen soon.
The
trail wove among hills and swidden farms until we came upon an
experiment of man that was abandoned – a narrow rough road
obliterated almost by rock falls. This road tries to wiggle its way
to the other side of the mountain range but nature is, most of the
time, a hard fellow to please. We follow it downhill, cross a stream
that became wild just recently, walk more downhill and cross another
stream. Across me is concrete pavement. I am now in a place called
Bokawe, a part of Pamutan, Cebu City.
The
endless rises of the road under the brunt of a sun approaching its
highest zenith takes away your enthusiasm. I just place my
concentration on the sound of my footfalls and take a quick peek
every now and then of what goes ahead and around you. Dogs, as what
we encountered before, do not like smelly and sweaty strangers. They
barked with contempt at you and follow a few inches behind you until
you could not take it anymore and feint to pick up a pebble and they
would instantly leave you alone.
When
I saw the last rise of the road, my last of the myriad of worries are
almost over. It would all be downhill and easy. We arrive at a
junction called Bagsakan, still a part of Pamutan, at exactly 12:00
and I called in rest. There is a store selling cold Sparkle and
cooked food. I should have left my last energy bar to the girls if I
know I could eat lunch here. We did not know that the village
chairman of Pamutan, Ronaldo Labitad, was expecting us. It was not
difficult for him to spot us. His guess was right: sweaty and smelly
guys wearing blue CHT jerseys with big backpacks.
Just
as were were talking with him, a policeman from the Guadalupe Police
Station arrived on a motorcycle. PO1 Gerald Ytom knew me instantly
the moment he laid eyes on me, not because I was the one they were
assigned to watch over but because I was his superior when he was
working with a security agency that I was tasked to oversee by the
owners. He was happy to see me jobless now but I am most happy that
he is now a public servant, a peacekeeper. I taught him well in my
monthly meetings and that made a big difference. I am proud of his
present standing in life.
At
13:00, we have to go down the road to Baksan, part of Sapangdaku,
Cebu City. PO1 Ytom rode ahead of us and back and so forth. Other
cops joined him when we reach Baksan at 14:30. By now, they could do
nothing more as I will be switching on a trail that goes all the way
to Guadalupe, Cebu City. Their motorcycles are only good on roads.
The silence of the trails is most welcome again at hours were you
would not meet people. Before doing that, I part away my trail mix
of nuts, coated chocolates, marshmallows and raisins to a group of
children and you should see their happy faces.
The
trail is very much familiar to me. I discovered this in 2009 and I
enjoyed its pristine solitude. It is a forest really but you would
not know it because it is blocked by the Banawa Hills if you happen
to be standing on any street of Metro Cebu. This part is very shady
with many fruit-bearing trees growing. Today I saw no fruit but it
have started to flower. The route goes out to a bare hill and passes
a World War II tunnel and a steel power pylon before it goes down to
a street.
We
reach finally the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish at 15:40. I
genuflected before the wide doors of the church and said my thanks to
Providence. A few seconds after, Markus Immer of the Supply Team
came with his Toyota Hilux to pick us up. First, we have to
celebrate with toasts of the coldest beer. I missed the cold beer
which I denied many times along the route where it was available.
The first bottle became a second bottle and it is now late in the
afternoon.
During
the interim of our celebration, Doc Jon proposed to me to have photos
of me and him right on the front steps of the Cebu Provincial
Capitol, the seat of the Cebu Provincial Government. We have to wear
again our sweaty CHT jerseys and the great backpacks and stood side
by side a road marker which says “Kilometer 0” before a busy
street where commuters look amused at our sweaty and burdened
appearance. We have taken the southern leg and we are entitled to
that two days rest.
Distance
Walked: 13.7 kilometers
Elevation
Gained: 571 meters and a low of 57 meters
Document
done in LibreOffice 5.2 Writer
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