Travel Journal 13-008: Mt. Romelo

It was of one my friend's wedding when we again met the outdoor group that is closest to our, a group that became more active after we linked our chain of friends. From there, a plan was formed, finally, another climb with them. It's been a long time since I met them in the trail, or should I say even not, as we rarely have joined their climb. Also, our busy days have started for more than a year now, making our outdoor activity  subside to almost none, thus, our group rarely climb together. But since then, my heart as outdoor person started to be excited again, though a long trip out of populated city can already give me fun, one can't disagree that fun is much better with friends, eh? :).

 At first, I thought that the plan won't come into a realization cause of the low turn out of participants since majority of them have commitment at the same day. But luckily, my hope didn't disappoint me, we still decided to persist the said, picking Mt. Romelo as the official destination.

Mt. Romelo have been famous for thievery against it's campers, mountaineer or tourist. Yes, maybe because it is already popular, not just for mountaineers but also for some first timers tourists/campers, makes the thieves of the said destination active. As a precaution, I opted not to bring much valuables, except ofcourse for my budget. Packed, I left the house a lot earlier than the group's call time to meet up with my groupmate first who will also be joining the climb. The pack I carry then since to be missing something, but there is none. I just miss my camera I named Holy, as I always bring him with me since I got him, everytime I go outdoor.

Few minutes of travel, I arrived at the meet up point, the city's terminal center. My friend, hasn't arrived yet, but I was expecting he'd come earlier since I was caught in traffic created by the road block since a bridge in our area is being repaired. After few minutes, I decided to give him a call and  learned that we was also caught in the same traffic. I was not just the route that the jeepney I rode have taken, but also other routes have been jammed due to the volume of vehicles, looking for alternative routes. But luckily, my wait didn't lasted long, as he was just some minutes away.

After meeting up, we then go straight to south where we are to meet other buddies.

After more than an hour of travel, we've reached Sta. Cruz, Laguna. From there, we received a call that we have to wait long since our buddies have miscalculated the travel time. And, we did! But, it's not a matter for us. To my surprise, they also didn't bring any camera. Then we decided to do our markets at Siniloan where we also have to meet one final buddy. We took, our lunch then head fast to Siniloan.
 
It was already late afternoon when we reached Siniloan. After our markets, our buddy arrived which signals the "Let's go" stuff.

It's jumpoff, we took the registration and haste to the trek. The first leg of Mt. Romelo a.k.a Buruwisan, is an abrupt ascend. No warm ups, the unpracticed me breathes heavily that I have to stop every 30-40 steps. Fortunately, the rolling trail begun afterwards. I am no longer a stranger to Mt. Romelo's trail as it is already my third there, but I still noticed my pace have slowed much, not to mention that my pack have gone lighter due absence of my camera, Holy.

Slow might I, yet I still managed not to be the very tail of the group.  Slowly, the group took their pace. We were some distances apart, but we kept each other not too far.  Every seat is a rest opportunity as we trek. Good thing, we came in late afternoon, that we don't have to problem the exhausting heat of the sun as some parts of the trail is well exposed. There are some occasional ascends which proves that my not so strong lungs needs more practice. Soon, the final ascend before the rolling trail that connects to descending trail to the campsite. With average pace, we managed to reach the campsite before dusk.

It's campsite! We've set our camp before cooking our dinner. Yes, socials is essential!(LOL), thus, the never ending shots also begun that night.

When the morning came, we cooked our breakfast and kept them first for a short trek to the falls down the site, the Buruwisan Falls and not far from it, the Lanzones Falls. After some dip and picture sessions, we headed back to our camp and took our breakfast.We took a short break, then headed to Batya-batya falls. The trail to it is more challenging than the trail of the other two falls, as you have to cross some deep part of the river or climb a steep trail on it's side. Unfortunately, I'm not a swimmer, thus no option but to take the side trail. Soon, another challenge came up, a chest-deep-river must be cross. We still managed to cross, but the non-swimmers were stuck the moment we reached the Batya-batya as going near to it requires swimming to it's deep basin. After some minutes, we then head back to the camp where the socials again begun while cooking our lunch.

After the lunch were prepared, we paused our sessions to take the lunch, then continued it after the meal. We took the luxury of dipping in the river while drinking the alcohol, before we packed our stuff to head home. It is almost the same time of ascending when we decided to ascend. It didn't took much of a challenge but as I assist the girls in our group that left behind, we took a confusing trail somewhere near the jumpoff, making us exit in a different trail. As we reach the registration area, our buddies have taken their break already.

(No photos for this travel, since as mentioned earlier no one brought their camera. Photo available here is a photo of an anonymous person from the net).

BUDGET CHECK (As of May 2013).

*From Cubao, my friends paid a fare of around Php 140.00-150.00 going to Sta. Cruz. Then an approximately Php 35.00 to Siniloan, the tricycle might cause a Php 150.00 - 200.00 per trip, thus Php 40.00 each.

*Meal again can be subdivided to group for around Php 200.00 each.

Total: Php 650.00.