By Gil delos Santos
IGBARAS is a third class municipality in the South-western part of Iloilo province known to be one of the hiker's favorite destinations as they are blessed with waterfalls, caves, climbing rocks, beautiful mountain ridges which the popular Mount Napulak belongs to, and locals with notable genuine hospitality.
We initiated the hike from Barangay Igcabugao which we had to pass through a community of mountain residents as we ascend to our first Mountain, Napulak. I had absorbed a good load of happy innocent vibe connecting to the children before starting the proper mountain journey. These kids have physically grown from the time I last saw them in my previous visits. At the same time, the reconnection naturally streamed down and effortlessly grown too. That's a good "pabaon" - their innocent smiles and timid but genuine thank you for the little present I have for them.
Getting to Mount Napulak once again is a mix of happy and little concern feelings. I am personally not very happy to see that metal cross installed by a priest at the nipple of the lime rock. It is more of an obstruction or alteration of Nature to me than serving the religious reason behind its installation. Mother Nature has its own law even not written on publications. Nature has to be protected and preserved as it is, not altered - in order for it to live on its natural course. This is one of the reasons behind my mountaineering goals - to protect and preserve Nature's birthed condition.
After around an hour, we start to descend to traverse to our next targetted mountain, Mt. Opao. It isn't a usual route so our legendary mountain guide, Tay Morot had to slash and bushwack a trail for us. Evening darkness stopped us to continue the journey and had to camp in a cave for the night.
Getting To Mount Opao -
It was a bit of challenge to approach the knife edge towards the summit but our group received a well deserved reward as we get to the peak with a good clearing and cool breeze. Internally, the Nature is like communicating to me inside being proud to present the almost 360 degrees panoramic view of the beautiful ridges. I rebound the love by giving back a short meditation under the shade of an isolated tree. Heaven was the definition of that feeling.
Few hours later, we found ourselves in awe again of the long stretch Mount Tambara's viewing deck after crawling a fairly steep ascend. Another heaven unfolded and a nice walk to the camp site after with wild berries up for grabs at hand-reached on the lush trail side.
A night of fun and laughter followed at the camp shared by semi-craze gang adventure hungry pips.
Next day, Mount Loboc was the next target. Walking under a scorching heat on an exposed trail doubled the exhaustion and thirst. But it's just part of the usual mountain journey. I didn't really care as much as others did as SURVIVAL skill in the wild is one of my favorite reasons going outdoours - to test my agility and survival techniques. Here I share a little for you to sustain energy and stay focused to survive in that condition:
- Avoid big movements to save energy
- Use minimal amount of water if supply is scarce. Only try to wet your throat and spit out the rest if your body still has sufficient fluid
- Utilize Nature's offering on trail. Edible fruits provide supplements your body needs esp the juicy ones
- Hoard a secret water supply in your backpack in case of emergency. Water is everything for survival in the wild
Back to Mount Loboc now...like in every quest to summit, peaking is always the climax. The view, the feeling of freedom for being at Nature's throne after an exhausting climb is another heaven.
Mount Pulang Lupa was next destination. We traversed a usual sun exposed trail but like every summit, its feel is always unique. Not extraordinary this time but the reward is the fact that we were still pretty normal and excited though exhausted for past 3 days of hiking.
One last item on the list was Mount Taripis. I was so excited to meet the finale. Unfortunately, there was some delays in the scheduled itinerary so we had to rest our backpack at that point.
So, here comes a few weeks after. I went back to Igbaras to close the unfinished business with Mount Taripis. That photo of mine sitting on a ridge with my backpack on and the smile can tell about the experience.
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