It was Rein's birthday and he invited his friends for a climb. Fortunately, that included me! Haha (even though we only met 2-3x so far hehe)
The day started tragically, with my phone being snatched/pickpocket when I got off in Pasay at around 4 am. That's why when I got to McDonald's to meet them, I was a bit of in a shock... Mourn for a few moments and scold myself on how stupid I am... We waited there for the others until 5 am, then proceeded to the bus station. We got a bus to Nasugbu (costs PhP 108), went down in Evercrest, and changed into our "gears". (Actually, I just changed into my long sleeves, and took out my sarong.)
Most of the climbers were people I already met from our previous climbs Rein, Alain, Chookies, Gyles, Ben, Ralph, Ynna, and new friends I just met are Dan and Abby. And we have new-found friends from the bus, RR and Jason.
Climbing Mt. Batulao was a leisure climb :) (Or maybe it's because I'm not carrying much haha Generally, just a water bladder and an extra shirt.)
My Malong, the only mountain gear that I really need
It was actually another hot sunny day to climb. (But it's better than Mt. Marami because there were lots of rest stops, where buko juice and mountain dew were being sold.)
See those mountains behind? That's where we're going
The registration takes place approximately 1/3 of the trail. Actually, there's two registration area, near the start, and near the end of the trail. (I think it's because they are the old and new trail?)
Registration Fee (20 for day trip, 30 for overnight)
Rest Stop near Peak 7 (where a female climber died recently) and the Registration Area
There are many routes that one can take to go through the summit. But because we want the shadier route, we took the forest route, where it's cooler by so many degrees. Eventually, the forest ends, and it's back to the hot striking sun (and by this time, it's around noontime too) to the summit.
View from the Summit
Still scolding myself for the loss of my phone
We spent several minutes in the summit, took some photos, etc, then finally went on our way down so we can have lunch on our first rest stop. There was a rappelling area on the way down, fun! Or you could challenge yourself and scramble yourself up and crab yourself down... (Hmm, did I say that right?)
We had a pause, because we can't rappel down because there were climbers going up! Apparently, my friend Yani was one of them. (Her story is posted in my other post Republ1c Wakeboarding.)
Yes, there's a part in Mt. Batulao where you rappel
We had lunch on the first tree that we found on our way down from the summit. There was this white cat there, who according to those who previously climbed, was already there even before. Apparently, the cat has a land spot in this mountain.
Thinking of my new phone
So many rest stops in this mountain! I think this is really one of the easiest to climb... Unless your route was taking the old trail then the new trail, which was more of a challenge! (Ahem, ahem...)
Nth Rest Stop
Anyway, we reached civilization around 2-3 pm. We rode the tricycle back to Evercrest, where we cleaned ourselves up. Urinating costs PhP 5, defecating costs PhP 10, and taking a bath/shower costs PhP 20.
Because I'm a very light packer, I just changed into a new shirt! Haha
In fairness, when I went up to buy something from the sari-sari store, there was a little boy who approached me, asking me if I need a guide. Apparently, I still look fresh enough to climb! Haha
As the itinerary goes, we went to Mushroomburger afterwards because we were very hungry. I should have ordered the mushroom burger steak with rice, based from the original itinerary. But for some reason, I thought I considered it an afternoon snack, and was planning on having dinner at home! (Whatda? Why would I think that??! Apparently, the trauma caused by my phone-snatching is still having an effect on my logic...)
We left around 5 pm, and reached Manila around 8 PM. They had a post-climb in Robinson's but I still had a wakeboarding I have to get up for the next day, and I also have to change my passwords because of my old phone, so I went home.
What a day!
This is a video produced by Ralph to document our climb :)
