BUSHCRAFT BUHISAN XLVI: Jungle Steam

IT IS A SPECIAL DAY today, November 26, 2017, for the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild. We have a special guest whose blades provided the tools for our dirt-times and became synonymous with Philippine bushcraft. Dr. Arvin Sese is in town. Taking timeout from his busy schedule, Doc Arvin happily joined the bunch in our hallowed playground at the old Camp Damazo, the site of the first Philippine Independence Bushcraft Camp in 2011.

While the weather was very depressing the days before, today promises a very warm day. The sun shone gloriously on the parking lot infront of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Guadalupe, Cebu City. When I arrived, Ernie Salomon, Richie Quijano, Vlad Lumbab, Glyn Formentera, Nelson Tan and Jenmar de Leon were already there. Then came Aljew Frasco, Eman Apuya and Boblyle Balverde. Arriving last in an Isuzu passenger van are Jhurds Neo and Doc Arvin.

After securing the food ingredients from the roadside market of Guadalupe, we leave as one on board the Isuzu at 08:15. We arrived twenty minutes later at Baksan and proceed to the trailhead. The path led to a man-made exotic forest of Burma teak. The ground is wet but not muddy. Going downhill, we follow the same serpentine path to the Banauan Creek. The stream is brisk but clear, its ripples sweet music to the ears.

I am leading the pack and I made it sure that the pace is favorable for Jhurds, Vlad and Doc Arvin, especially now that we are following the stream down to its intended union with the bigger Lensa Creek. We would not be going to the catchment basin of the Buhisan but we would be on higher ground instead where it is much safe. We reach the old site of Camp Damazo at 09:30 and staked our dirt time here.

 

The heat of the day made the jungle very humid as steam rose to the canopies. While the rains may have left a wet surrounding, we at the Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild know where to source dry kindling, tinder and firewood. I taught these guys and I am mighty proud of them. If we do not find them, we have these in our fire kits. The guys automatically spread out to look for dry fuel.

An uneasy flame appeared underneath a wooden tripod standing high and a little gentle coaxing from Aljew, this flame begins to gain warmed up spaces around its small circle of half-moist tinder and kindling until it became confident to burn bigger fuel. Thick smoke rise and a crackle of fire announced to all that it is ready for the pyromaniacs. A pot hanged from the tripod and coffee is in the first order of things.

   

Doc Arvin, tired from his travel from Carcar City, 41 kilometers away, set up a hammock in between two trunks and, in an instant, a blissful snore sounded off. He says he stayed a full vigil the whole night at the Carcar District Hospital treating and caring patients. He is a government doctor who is on loan from a government hospital in Pangasinan. He would be going back to his home province after a few days.

Dr. Arvin Sese, together with his brothers, owned and sold knives under the SESEBLADE brand. I first saw a Seseblade, an NCO, during the 2012 PIBC. Since then I have used their blades in all my bushcraft and survival classes everywhere in the country and endorsed the Seseblade before participants. Aside from the NCO, Seseblade also has the Mountaineer, Sinalung, Nessmuk, Matavia, the JEST Bolo, Parang and the Tomahawk.

It is known that I just used a 9-inch Seseblade Straight NCO over another bigger blade to work my way through the forbidding wilderness of the Doce Cuartos Mountain Range in Tabogon during Day 22 of my Thruhike of the Cebu Highlands Trail. Even though small, the local blade performed well in a tropical jungle environment with just a flick of a wrist, a method that shies away from those cinema-type hacking which is tiring and less effective.

After drinking coffee, I found the rest of the gathered firewood partly moist so I decided to augment theirs with dry ones. I see a waist-high stump and started chopping on one side with my AJF Gahum. Although the outermost part is moist, the next layers were completely dry. Storms and downpours could not penetrate the grains and it shall remain dry although it looked wet on the outside. The wood from the dead trunk provided good fuel for the cooking.

The guys were busy with the cooking and they were deeply buried in their conversations. I need not disturb that equilibrium so I dragged a cheap laminated nylon sheet from my Lifeguard USA rucksack to a place where there is shade. Unmindful of the dear doctor’s snoring and the roars of laughter from the river bank, I tried to squeeze a few minutes of sleep, which I did, until my Yaesu FT270R picked up a wayward signal.

I do not know how many minutes did I sleep but I felt I was cheated. It felt that I enjoyed it in a few seconds only. I did not feel revived nor was I short of being tired. The struggles of the camp fixers of their food have not yet seen its finale but there is still brewed coffee in a billy can. I could try another cup. The snores are still there and I envy Doc Arvin. More jungle steam rising to the branches and humidity is high.

The last of the meat is almost done on open ember. The aroma is overpoweringly sweet, teasing my hunger to its ultimate borderline of instability. Doc Arvin could have felt it too as the snores have stopped and the hammock moved to reveal a couple of lower legs dangling and reaching for the ground. I see a smiling Doc Arvin, quite refreshed from his half-hour of sleep. Ernie removed the last one and Vlad sliced that with his scary-sharp blade.

Lunch begin at 12:30, fair enough to feed a mad and famished man. Aside from grilled pork, liver estofado and raw cucumber in vinegar got served with unlimited rice. The pot bottoms are scraped clean leaving less for the ants. Conversations regained its momentum with the clank and clink of metal competing for earspace as it gets a scrubbing from sand near a water hole.

By 13:30, it was time to move off. Doc Arvin has to leave Cebu City for Carcar City at 17:00. After cleaning up Camp Damazo, leaving as little traces of our time here, I led them to another trail. I would have loved to go the way we went in but it is longer. The trail I am following now is steep but we would be at the trailhead in shorter time possible even if we tarry a lot for rests which is natural.

We are climbing a peak which I jestingly call as “Boy T’s Hell” and it is steep. We overcome two false peaks before arriving there. This peak, I first climbed in 2010 with Boy Toledo and Ernie during an earlier exploration of the extremities of the Buhisan. It was here that Boy almost collapsed of dehydration, fatigue and disorientation. I gave him all my water and it revived him but the peak was hell for him.

We arrived at Boy T’s Hell at 14:30 and before us is a long ridge that connect to another ridge and, on that day, it was beautiful to gaze at, unlike the last time I was there. Across us is the pyramidal shape of Bokatol. We arrived at Baksan at 15:30, time good enough for Doc Arvin to be at the Cebu South Bus Terminal before 17:00. We immediately leave as one on board the Isuzu and reached Guadalupe.

We say goodbye and thanks to Doc Arvin as Jhurds drove the Isuzu to the bus terminal. It was my first time to see and talk to Doc Arvin in person yet it seemed we knew each other for a longer time. In this strange interest of bushcraft, I have encouraged my adherents and students to patronize local products, most particularly, local blades. Doc Arvin has been most generous to provide me his designs and prototypes and I was a willing ambassador.

Document done in LibreOffice 5.4 Writer