2012 Batangas Twin Hike (2 of 2): Mt. Batulao, Wow!

Twin Hike (Mt. Talamitam and Mt. Batulao)
Nasugbu, Batangas
December 15-16, 2012
Itinerary: Talamitam-Batulao Twin Hike_Dec2012

As mentioned in my previous post, we had our super late lunch before heading on to our next hike—Mt. Batulao! Rested for a while, bought some food (i.e., rice, canned goods) to keep us full while camping at one of the peaks of Batulao. After resting, we took a trike bound for the jumpoff point for Mt. Batulao trekking.

So it was 6 of us, and we didn’t need a guide to take us to the campsite, or to the summit, as one of our NFFs (new-found friends, Kuya Dan) knew the trail. Ronn and Kuya Dan are regular hikers/campers, buti na lang pinasabit kame! :D Before starting off with the hike, we said a little prayer asking for guidance (di ko inexpect na may ganito pala! Hehe! But that was a nice gesture…)

And so the hike started. Easy at first… tiring the next. Buti na lang our slippers endured the rough terrain; next time, we’ll consider wearing a pair of trekking shoes na! :D Along the way, we have met quite a number of hikers as well, with their gigantic backpacks hahaha! Seryoso, kame lang ang light packers! Hahaha!

One group which we had a photo with comprised of Nicole, Jay and Don (wow! Amazing memory! Hahaha!)

We had to ascend and descend 7 peaks; as the campsite is situated at the 8th peak. So at every peak, what we did was… Alam na, camwhore for the nth time! :D That’s one of the best things to do to forget about our tired feet and aching shoulders (ay! hindi pala sumakit balikat ko kase pinabitbit ko yung backpack ko! haha! Thanks, Chad! :D) Hahaha!

The view’s amazing!! So far, sa mga naakyat kong bundok (konti pa lang naman), Mt. Batulao’s topping my list of amazing sights, with Batad Rice Terraces placing second. Maybe it will change when I’ll finally set foot at Mt. Pulag… ehehehe! (Oh I really do hope to set foot at Mt. Pulag’s summit! =p)

Anyway, it took us more than 2 hours to reach Peak 8 (campsite), and we were almost running out of daylight. It was a good decision to camp at Peak 8, and continue summiting Mt. Batulao the next day.

When we reached the campsite, there were quite a number of tents already set up for the night. Weekend, as expected, madami ang nag-cacamping. So we looked for a good spot where we could set up our tents, and luckily found a space near the store.

Yes, there’s a store at the campsite, which also has a toilet for rent (..ligo lang po, bawal jebs hehehe). And this store also had spare tents for rent; so we decided to rent two for the four of us (Kuya Dan and Ronn had their own). Php200 per tent, that’s good for two people. Fair enough for unprepared souls like us! Hehe! :)

Water for bathing is also available in the store (Php35 per container—kasya na yun panligo, tipid tipid lang! Haha!) So after freshening up, we then prepped for dinner and set up our tents for the night. Our NFFs brought a stove and some cooking wares; amazing haha! Yun pala ang laman ng mga malalaki nilang bag! =p Newbie talaga kame sa camping sa bundok eh, pasensya. :)

So we volunteered to cook and prepare the dinner; tapos yun, lamon na.. hehe! It’s not my first time to camp, pero first time kong makipag-camping sa mga beteranong campers hehe! Cowboy kung cowboy, walang prob samin, sanay naman kame sa ganun.

After dinner, we set up our tents. Angsaya, dun lang ako natuto mag-set up ng tent hahaha! (babaw ko di ba? haha!) Jillian and I had tried camping in Anawangin before, but we were just so lame that we couldn’t set our tent up! Haha! Pero this time in Batulao, narealize ko, madali lang pala! Haha! Toinks! ;p

Socials…..as what Kuya Dan termed it. Yun un eh. We’ve had some chitchat and a little getting-to-know moments with our NFFs; Gaily preferred to stay in the tent though (may pinagdadaanan, ayaw sumali sa socials haha!) And the chitchat’s done over some shots of GSM Blue, with me as the tanggera. Yay! Oh well, so todo reklamo sila sa taas ng tagay ko at bilis ng ikot ng baso haha! At 11pm after almost finishing the second bottle of GSM, we called the time off and we decided to sleep the night away.

The next day….

Breakfast was prepared by Kuya Dan. Petiks lamon lang, before we headed on to the summit of Mt. Batulao. While preparing, we enjoyed the morning view of Mt. Batulao, it was more stunning than the view that welcomed us the afternoon before… hehehe! @_@

Isn’t that amazing?? ehehe! Para sakin, OO! :D And we had to take that trail to reach the summit of Batulao! Hiyes… There still remained 3 more peaks before reaching the last. So much enjoying the view, we took our breakfast before we headed on to conquer Mt. Batulao’s summit. :)

On our way to the summit…

After breakfast, we (except Gail and Kuya Dan—who didn’t want to climb the summit) started the trek, bringing only a bottle of water and our camera. According to the regular hikers, getting to the summit will only take about 30 minutes; but it took us about an hour to reach the peak!

These are some of the pics while we were on our way to the summit:

With Ronn leading the way, me and Jillian struggling for the most part of the trail haha! Chad’s at our back carrying my cam. And ummm medyo mahirap ang pag-akyat! hehe! Pero carry lang, with the walking stick! :) Dagdag pa sa hirap yung sakit ng tyan! Haha! While we were on our way, it drizzled, and it was windy. It was a bit scary, especially when we were at the difficult spot called “knife edge”. Katakot lang, kase bangin both at the left and right sides! So better be extra careful when passing that part of the trail!

I almost gave up when we were nearing the summit, nakakaubos ng energy ang pag-akyat! Hahaha! Plus nakaka-disappoint pa yung ambon and fog. But because a trek wouldn’t be complete without conquering the peak, I decided to go on and push it a little too far! Hehe!

Yun oh! Narating din namin ang summit after all our struggles! =D

Tsk tsk tsk! That’s what we call a foggy summit! Haha! Because it was drizzling, the summit’s a little clouded. Pinagkaitan kame ng view of the entire stretch of Mt. Batulao at this point in time. Pero sige lang, tumambay pa rin kame ng saglit, hoping the clouds will disappear! :)

In the meantime, tuloy ang pikchuran!

Our descent back to the campsite…

After a few minutes of pagtatambay and after losing hope of seeing a clear sky, we decided to make our descent. I think we were one of the last few groups to make the descent back to the camp site. As usual petiks hike lang, my right knee was already in pain that time! Big thanks to my walking stick! Haha!

Jillian’s footwear failed to be a trekking footwear (haha madulas!), so we had to slide our way down at some point in our descent! Kebs na sa dumi na inabot ng pants ko! :)

Just when we were about a few steps down from the summit, the skies started to get clear! Pambihira! And the view was more breathtaking, that we had to stop and do more camwhoring hehehe! Who wouldn’t want to enjoy this sight??

May bonus pa! Because it drizzled earlier on, may lumabas na rainbow right at the side of Knife Edge when the drizzle stopped!

The rainbow was just perfect at that moment! Hahaha! =) Nakalimutan kong sobrang sakit na ng tuhod ko, makapag-pose lang sa may knife edge with the rainbow! Jillian and Ronn didn’t take time to camwhore at this spot, nagmamadaling bumaba! Haha! May lakad?? =D

After a couple of minutes, we were back to our campsite, with Kuya Dan and Gaily waiting for us. By that time, the campsite was already tent-less (is there such a term?!) ehehe!

Our descent back to jump off point…

Before descending, group pose muna, with Kuya Dan as the photographer :)

Then we began hiking our way down peaks 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1… With stops in between to take photos and to rest and to eat halo-halo. Hehehe! Hiking back to the jump off point was faster than our hike to the campsite, expectedly. But because we’re passing through 7 peaks, we still had to descend and ascend! Hehe!

It was scorching hot, as usual. Pero oks na yun kesa sa maulan! Hehe! I could endure a hot day more than a muddy and slippery trail. ehehe!

After a couple of hours, we were back at the foot of the mountain—tired, sweaty and melanin-rich! =D Yes, it was tiring, but we had fun!

While we were on our way down, we were discussing about having a part 3 to this trip—like go to the nearest beach in Nasugbu to be refreshed from the twin hike… But because we were all tired, plus the four of us didn’t have enough clothes for another trip, we decided to not go with it.

We took a bath in a house near Evercrest (and near the carinderia where we had our lunch the day before).—Php20 per person. After freshening up, we went to the same carienderia to take our (again) super late lunch, before heading home.

We then exchanged email add with Kuya Dan and Ronn, to be FB friends haha! And since they’re part of a mountaineering group or something, we would like to be updated as to their next hiking, and probably we might tag along with their group. Who knows? Hehehe! =D

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