Day 1 - December 28, 2011
My eyes opened widely upon seeing the view of the grassy field (aka horse/cow-shit field). The peak was now a stones throw away. The pain that I was feeling a few hours ago has gone all of a sudden. A great achievement for me.
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| We're finally here! |
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| panoramic shot of the lower campsite |
I became ecstatic upon reaching the grassy field, I ran around, constantly hopping over the pieces of cow/horse shit. It's windy up there and I can view the province of Batangas 360 degrees. On the north-east, the Verde Strait is seen. Mountains such us Maculot, Banahaw, and Makiling are visible on range.
But oops, false alarm, we're not yet on the summit. It was still 10 minutes away from the first grassy field/shit field. So we walked again over a muddy trail to reach the higher ground.
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| who has the muddiest feet? |
We reached the summit area at 3:10 PM (we started the ascent at 11:30 AM, wow we trekked Mt Daguldol for 3 hours and a half). We were greeted by cows (yes, grazing cows are present at the summit area) upon reaching the site. The feeling was incomparable, I finally conquered Mt. Daguldol, my first mountain!
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| moo.. |
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| Tayabas bay |
It was windy up there, and because of that, temperature dropped (around
14o-16oC). I wanted to roll around but the field was moist and a bit muddy.
Soon after Kuya Ugus showed us the way to the spring (there's also an ice cold mountain spring on a distance), he bid goodbye and left us alone on the summit area.
Oh yeah! We own the summit, no one was there but the four of us and the grazing cows. I removed my muddy sandals and walked barefooted at the area and the feeling was just too great (parang mud spa lang sa paa).
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| it's much comfortable without any footwear |
We started setting up our camp by 3:30 PM and as usual I know nothing about setting up tents so I was again a spectator.
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| sorry, isa akong inutil na camper :) |
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| o diba, they can do it without my help |
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| fog was starting to grow by 5PM |
Darkness started to rule the sky by 5:40 PM. During the evening twilight, the sky was a great scene, as if a fire was set ablaze. We didn't miss the chance of taking pictures of it of course.
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| group shot FTW, thanks to my improvised tripod |
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| pan-shot of the sky during the twilight |
It was getting colder and colder as the sun leaves the horizon. And before the sun went down, another group of campers arrived (nasira ang aming senti moments). As soon as it became dark, we experimented with night shooting . Light trails shooting is a fun thing to do.
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| star |
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| Yag's star - epic fail |
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| crescent |
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| Jonas' tooot |
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| hi there! |
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| B as in Batang Lakwatsero |
We had our dinner (camping style) at 6:30 PM. Since we don't have portable stove with us, we ate our food straight from the can. We had tuna paella, tuna flakes in oil, bread and liver spread, so healthy huh...
Thick fog covered the summit area by nighttime, as in zero visibility at 3 meters distance, temperature dropped as well.
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| "segunda mano" shot |
By 8:00 PM, we're out of activities so we just stayed inside our tents until we drowsed off.
Day 2 - December 29, 2011
I alarmed my phone at 5:30 AM so I can watch the sunrise. But when I opened the tent, poof, I saw nothing but fog - ok back to sleep. But my phone alarmed repeatedly every 10 minutes (I just love pressing that snooze). Finally at 6 AM, I ended the noise and decide to go out to feel the morning air/fog. I failed to see the sun rise.
It's too cold and foggy outside. The mountains we saw yesterday were no longer visible as the thick fog covers them.
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| still foggy at 6AM |
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| sariling sikap shot |
We ate our breakfast (tuna paella and bread) around 7:45 AM. As soon as we finished our breakfast, we broke the camp, packed up our things and get ourselves ready for the descent. When the fog slowly subsided, a full bow of a rainbow smiled at us (just wow).
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| talagang hindi pa rin ako tumulong kahit sa pagligpit ng tent |
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| pan-shot of the skyline |
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| great scene |
By 8:30 AM we started the descent. I grew excited whenever I was thinking about the side trips to Naambon Falls and Laiya Beach.
continue reading here: Sidetrips
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Mt. Daguldol Climb (2D1N, December 28-29, 2011)
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Bitin!haha.. Climbing is really addicting. Hope to read more adventures this 2012. Pwede din sumama sa climbing groups para masaya nman ang socials ng next climb nyo. Good job for your first climb! :)
ReplyDeletehi ms raine,
ReplyDeleteindeed I'm an addict now. haha. I'm actually looking forward to joining climbing groups on this year 2012. sana makarami tlga ako ngayong bagong taon.
HAHAHAHA Natawa ako sa segunda mano shot! Naexperience ko rin na zero visibility during night time! At sobbbrang lamig nung time na yun, like three layers of clothing na ako but still giniginaw pa rin ako.
ReplyDeleteWaaaa. I am so excited na akyatin ang Mount Pinatubo. Weeeee. Sawang-sawa na ako sa dagat eh, kaya bundok naman ang pagtripan ko. Hehehe.
ganda nung scene sa last picture..with rainbow pa!
ReplyDeleteWhy did you not gather some twigs and such to start a small campire fire to heat your food and warm your bodies?
ReplyDelete@renz, ako rin, na-umay na ako sa dagat kaya bundok din ang target ko ngayong taon..
ReplyDelete@June, salamat.. haha, na-amaze tlga ako sa rainbow scene
@bert, yan nga din sana gusto ko kaya lng meron akong kasamang mountaineer, medyo may pinaglalaban sya na dinidiscourage daw ang campfire sa bundok..
I like the TOOT! =))
ReplyDeleteNak, meron kang trait na namana sakin. Yung pagiging spectator lang at hindi pagtulong. Wahahaha!
Nice storytelling. Bakit yung isa sapatos na lang asan na yung paa? Lol.
nice pix!!! i also had the chance to climb mt. daguldol and it was really really muddy..:p i remembered that wood fence,, there was a brief hanging on it.. XD
ReplyDeletewith the summit,, i much prefer the summit of mt gulugod baboy.. especially when all the lights from the nearby shoreline lights up..:D
i'd like to join you in one of your trips if its ok..? :D
salamat. ang saya naman ng welcoming banner sa inyo haha. hndi ko pa na-akyat ang Gulugod baboy, plan ko na rin yan akyatin.
Delete...panalo talaga sa mga adventure....
ReplyDelete...it was fun reading your stories....more more more....
>>>>>KUDOS, SIR BATANG LAKWATSERO<<<<<<
...gustong gusto ko yung shot na may rainbow....
ReplyDelete...memorable talaga, nakisama talaga....
The rainbow is the exclamation point of the hike! That was great! :)
ReplyDeleteHello po, lahat po ba kayo PLMayers? :) nice. :D ganda nung rainbow shot. :)
ReplyDeleteHi! Question po, so bawal ba talaga mag campfire? Akyat kasi kami this long weekend, and magdala kami uling para makapag luto. Pwede kaya?
ReplyDelete