MINDANAO IS UNDER MARTIAL LAW and I
do not forget that. There was an urban war in Marawi City fought by the
government forces against ISIS which had ended more than a month ago. I
travelled a month earlier to Davao City to test the climate of uncertainty
painted by media. There was indeed a military presence there, which is fair
enough. Would it be okay to travel there again with bladed tools? I have to
find that out myself.
You know, I have never taught
bushcraft and wilderness survival in Mindanao and I waited for many years for
that opportunity until Earl Ryan Janubas and JP Echavez, both of Cagayan de Oro
City, organized one for me. Martial Law have curtailed travel of Mindanaoans to
their most famous mountain destinations and they needed an alternative outlet
for their thirst of adventure. That is when they contacted me.
Going by plane to Mindanao is out
of the question for me, although travelling in it with blades is the most
convenient. The transfer of the airport location of Cagayan de Oro, in Lumbia,
to the Municipality of Laguindingan a few years ago is too far for my own
comfort. The boat is my best option even if I have to unload my bladed tools to
security for safekeeping while I am in the boat and it would travel with me
anyway.
As an outdoors educator and
survival instructor, blades play a very important role in all my classes and
training instructions. Blades make easy work and these are educational aids and
tools. Trusting to my good judgment, I carried some of my best blades with me
like the AJF Gahum, Pandoy Pulido Pinahig, Condor Bushlore, Mora Companion,
Knifemaker Camp, Seseblade Sinalung, Seseblade Matavia, a Browning and a
Victorinox Trailmaster. Coming also is my veteran tomahawk.
I travelled by boat in the evening
of October 29, 2017 bound for Cagayan de Oro. Earl and JP would be expecting my
arrival the following day. I arrived in the morning of October 30 and JP came
to fetch me and whisked me to Focal Matters, a photography studio located at
Capistrano and Yacapin streets where Earl is the resident photographer. After
lunch, Earl and I travelled to Libona, Bukidnon on his Honda CG125, along with
JP with his motorcycle.
We followed a newly-opened road
that go through the backcountry of Indahag and Gango and arrive at Libona at
around 15:00. We made a courtesy call to the village head of Poblacion and then
to the community leader where we would make our camp for three days. It is in
the property of Earl’s brother. We visit it for a brief inspection. It passes
by a big pineapple farm and a trail lead to a stream.
Beside the stream is a narrow piece
of ground good for eleven tents and some trees could host a few hammock pieces.
It had been raining here for the most part of the week and the stream is deep
with color associated with floods. I have my concerns but I am hoping that
weather will get better. It is sunny and warm but the highlands has a weather
of its own. I cannot rely on a weather forecast from a mere phone
application.
Earl and I returned to the town and
made it to the house of his brother. We will both sleep there so we could be
early to the campsite while JP need to go back to CDO. Bukidnon, by its
location in the highlands of Mindanao, always has cold nights. It was colder
still when there was a heavy downpour in the middle of the night which did not
stop until the earliest hours of dawn. That got me worried about the stream and
the campsite.
After breakfast of October 31, Earl
and I went back to the campsite at 07:00. The stream have not risen that much.
Only the color became more brown and the current more brisk than yesterday. I
am assured of a very sunny morning and I hoped that the weather will turn out
the better for the rest of the day. We choose this site because of its
proximity to a natural spring located across.
I looked for a couple of trees, not
far enough from each other and not near enough, and finding one such place, I
left my bag. I choose the best location where I would be safe if the stream
overflow but near enough to the rest. Open carrying my AJF Gahum, I go back up
the slope and looked for a good place to make a latrine. Found one under a
copse of cassia trees and dug a hole with a digging stick sharpened by my
knife.
Then I foraged materials as
educational aid for the outdoors seminar like dry and green bamboos, firewood
and dry leaves. After an hour, JP and eleven participants arrived, including
two high school students from Xavier University. One participant even brought
his two dogs. All set up tents on the grassy ground while two of them found a
place for a hammock.
Part of the morning was spent
setting up shelters and diverting the flow of the natural spring by a bamboo
viaduct, crossing over the stream into our campsite. Dry bamboos are abundant
and I do not have to cut poles since there are many left rotting on the ground
and a few are left hanging. I choose the clean ones for our improvised water
span, propping it high enough from even an increase of a meter of flood.
The BASIC TROPICAL BUSHCRAFT COURSE
is almost the same as that of the ones I do and organize in the Philippine
Independence Bushcraft Camp, held in Cebu annually. It always start with Introduction
to Bushcraft. The participants learned the terminologies and jargon used in
bushcraft; its preferred environment; its own psychology; its methodologies;
and its difference from survival and from mainstream activities.
Then next is Ethical Bushcraft.
The best practices of leisure bushcraft, using its own principles of Blend,
Adapt and Improvise, to lower your obtrusive presence among forests and jungles
and increases an individual’s safety and security. It covers trail travel,
courtesy to locals, campsite location, fire management and camp hygiene.
Ethical Bushcraft is taken from this author’s unfinished book of the same
title.
After lunch and siesta, it is the
turn for Knife Care and Safety to be discussed. This chapter changes the
perspective of the knife into a useful tool instead. The Philippine law on the
regulations of carrying a knife – Batas Pambansa Bilang 6 – are
explained thoroughly and clearly as well as ethics and safety, care and
sharpening, blade shapes, parts and grinds, and the Nessmuk Trio.
At 14:30, this author demonstrate Survival
Tool-Making to the participants. This chapter is a practical exercise in
knife dexterity and safety; taught them how to carve spoons, jugs and an
improvised cooking vessel from a green bamboo pole; and create a digging stick
from a thick straight branch. Aside that, this blogger gave them the idea how
and where to source cords from nature. Next is Notches. Another knife
dexterity session aided, this time, by a baton.
When dusk came, all activities ceased
and the participants focused on the preparation of their meals under a slight
shower. By 19:30, the campfire is lit and becomes the social center for the
Campfire Yarns and Storytelling. This camp tradition does not need great
company as long as the train of tales and laughter begins. Sometimes, a
moderate round of alcoholic drinks move that into more tales and laughter.
Rains came and ended abruptly the night socials.
The second day (November 1) starts
with breakfast but after that, all will deny food the rest of the day, not
until they have accomplished foraging their own food which comes later in the
night. This is to simulate the hunger pangs associated when you are stressed in
a survival situation. Everyone steeled themselves for this occasion. The day is
warmer than yesterday but the ground is muddy.
The first chapter for this long day
is Customizing the Survival Kit. It is better that survival kits are
made from scratch than bought commercially because its size and components
depend upon the type of the activity you are indulging in and the kind of
environment you are going to visit. Your personal preference still matters
although redundancy of some functions, like fire tools, luminosity, water
collection and cutting devices increases security.
Then I proceed to Foraging and
Plant Identification. This author discusses about traps and snares and what
are the difference between the two; luring methods and trap lines; and foraging
food and non-food. It also identifies which plants are edible, harmful and
poisonous. The participants are then shown the different traps and snares that
are set up in camp before touring the area around the camp for the common
plants growing here.
Hearing distant thunder, I decide
to proceed to Fire, Fuel and Campfire Safety. Understanding first how a
fire is made is very important. You have to know the three elements of the fire
triangle: fuel, heat and air. You cannot produce fire if lacking one element.
Conversely, you can put out a fire by removing one. Lately, they added a fourth
element – chemical reaction.
Making fire by friction is 80%
common sense, 10% skill and 10% perspiration. Your fire can start if you can
acquire and identify the right tinder, if you are in a dry place, and if you
have the patience. In a very humid location, the presence of moisture in the
atmosphere almost always hinder the production of ember needed to start a fire.
Most of the time heat is stolen by the cooling effect of watery air.
Aside from friction, there is the
conventional method which are matchsticks, lighters, ferro rods, and the flint
and steel. Then there is solar magnification which can be done with magnifying
lens in a cloudless day. Then you have pressurized air, exemplified by the fire
piston. Since I do not have the luxury of time, I limit my demonstrations to
the flint and steel, and the ferro rod. I also showed them how to make a tinder
bundle.
Demonstrated how the bow drill
method is made and spun. Unfortunately, I could only make thick smoke as
sawdust embers refused to light up my tinder due to humid conditions. Dark
clouds are now overhead as the thunder gets nearer and nearer. I let others try
the bowdrill, the ferro rod, and the flint and steel. The participants properly
learned how to use the ferro rods. It ignites easily natural tinder.
By now, wisps of moisture started
to drop. I demonstrated how the bamboo-saw method is made and scratched. As
with the bow drill, I could only produce smoke. Moisture have penetrated the
grains of bamboo. Racing against the rain, I tried again and failed. Four
participants tried but in vain. I made another derivative of the bamboo-saw
that could be done with two people. Smoke is thick and there is a promise of
ember but it lived shortly. Then a strong downpour fell.
For the rest of the afternoon, we
could do nothing but stay in our shelters. I could not discuss the rest of the
topics and our Nocturnal Hunting is even jeopardized. Owing to circumstances
beyond our control, I aborted it and gave a go signal to prepare their food for
dinner. In wet conditions, I am able to make fire in my Swiss Army wood burner
to boil water first for coffee and then for Japanese seaweed soup.
The heavy downpour caused the
stream to overflow on the lowest places of the campsite but it necessitated the
transfer of three tents nevertheless to better locations. The water current
increased and became very noisy, alarming everybody. For a couple of hours we
were awake, watching the stream, until the rains began to slow down. I relax
with my watch and half-chased sleep.
In my comfortable hammock,
rainwater found its way to my chest. I shifted my body so the drips would not
fall on me but a cotton rope I used to tie the hammock with snapped and I fell
hard with my hammock on the ground. I re-strung my hammock and my shelter setup
hoping to stop the drips. I placed drip cords on the ridgeline of my shelter
just like I did before on the ends of my hammock. After I have done so, the
drips have stopped.
The last day (November 2), I was
surprised to see that the bamboo viaduct have withstood the stream’s rising
water last night and still supplied us with an uninterrupted clean water. The
water is not cloudy. We prepared breakfast early for I have four more topics to
discuss. Yesterday’s muddy ground are smoothed out by water but it is wise not
step on the same surfaces.
After breakfast, we break camp and
transferred uphill to be away from the din created by chainsaws used by locals
who took advantage of a holiday to cut trees. The first one is Understanding
Cold Weather. During mountain climbing, exposure to the
elements is expected. There are five physical mechanisms that steal
away body heat and the things that we should do to keep us constantly
warm.
Next is Outdoors Common Sense.
This is the subject matter that I based from my yet unpublished book, ETHICAL
BUSHCRAFT. It is about trail courtesy and behavior while on the trail;
choosing the best campsites; practicing stealth camping; increasing individual
safety and security; wildlife encounters; and introduce people the idea of
Blend, Adapt and Improvise.
Finally, the topic of Outdoor
Cooking and Food Preservation gets its slot. Different ways of preserving
meat, fish, vegetable and fruits. Getting equal discussion are the different
kinds of fireplaces. After the lectures, author shows how the Trailhawk
System of cooking rice in bamboo is done. The participants prepared their
meal for lunch and when all got cooked, to include the rice inside the bamboo,
we had our meal.
We packed up everything and hiked
the three kilometers back to Libona and then to the terminal. From Libona, we
rode on tricycles to Manolo Fortich and transferred to a van-for-hire.
Destination is Cagayan de Oro City, which we reached at 18:00. We stayed for a
while at a local restaurant for dinner and the post-event discussion and
socials. I was tired but I was not sleepy. I noticed there was no curfew here
but we have to end after midnight.
I found a vacant room at Rosario’s
Place for I have a speaking engagement tomorrow evening (November 3) at Viajero
Outdoor Centre. Coming here to Cagayan de Oro with a cargo of blades gave me
fears of travel restrictions brought about by Martial Law. It turned out well
but, going back to Cebu, a security guard made it a little hard for me with his
wrong presumptions. Or was he just interested with my properties? My spring-bound lecture handbook made all the explaining
for him.
The unpredictable weather of the
highlands of Bukidnon is something that I have to give an extra consideration
next time. I expected it to behave like all highlands do but I failed to give a
thought that Bukidnon is a plateau where rainwater would be collected on a wide
area instead of travelling fast and quick to the sea. Here, it accumulates slow
and long before going down the different drainage systems.
It was a productive moment not just
for me, but also for my newly-found friends of Mindanao. At last, I was able to
introduce bushcraft there and helped them become better outdoorsmen. My trip there would
not have been possible without the sudden sparks of creativity by Earl and
JP. For their efforts, I part my couple of Seseblades to them, courtesy of Dr.
Arvin Sese, whose quality but affordable blades I had endorsed everytime I have training sessions.
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