April 25, 2009

Mt. Mag-asawang Bato

Third part of my Holy week vacation in Batangas and hope not the last... :P

Anyway guys, as I continue, Masasa beach is more than a beach, you can sail, snorkel, swim and whatever that can you think of. But for me and the Sanyapak team we learned that there's a mountain to climb there. Mag-asawang Bato is the name of the small mountain. Why is it named like that? Well, as we have known from the locals of Tingloy, the peak of the said mountain has two giant boulder at it's very peak or formerly it is one giant boulder that splits into two.


Well, at 4:00 pm, we decided to climb the moutain. We asked some locals about the way there but in our surprise, the first 100 steps or so are in paved way. Not so hard after all eh. As we walk on, there's a wall that blocks our way or we think at first that we took the private way. We asked a woman about the trail we supposed to go and she replied that we just hve to walk beyond the cow's resting tree. In other words, we have to go the ridge of the mountain.

As we hike, we noticed that there are some places in the mountain that used as their place for making coals and some are used to shepherd their cows. There are some places also than can be use as a camp site to any mountaineer that want to stay there.

As we follow the trail to the peak, we saw a fork trail beyond us and we decided to split our team and search for the right trail. Me and Tonio followed the traditional trail or as we speak the farmer's trail 'coz we know that the mountain is also used for the cow's resting ground. After a while, Egay shouted at us that Enan just found the right track and after that we just follow the bushy trail. After 5 minutes of hike we found a clearing and we saw the very peak of the mountain, the two stones of Mag-asawang Bato.

Enan is waiting for us at the foot of the stones as we hike after him. As we are getting nearer to the stones, the way is a little tricky to walk. Why? Well, the ridges are to small to walk, the bushes are to thick, the dry branches are sticking out every where that pokes us as we go through it. Well, not much comlains on that as we arrived at the stones of the mountain. We then took our pictures there. As we finished our picture there we saw a small path way to the other side but we didnt bother to explore it since we dont want to descend at night since we only carried our water. Hence, we descend the mountain with cheers. Mountain number two for the group...

Here's our pictures from the Mag-asawang Bato ...

Above: The Mount Mag-asawang Bato

Above: Enan point's at the peak.

Above: We followed Enan at the peak.

Above: The two giant boulders or a split stone?

Above & Below: The team at the center of the the stone.


We reached the Masasa beach at 5:30pm. Wow... just one and a half hour of hike for it. Anyway, my family is waiting for us there and when we finished our packing we then go home to Pulang Bule. As we arrived at Tatay Dante's house and learned that we climb the Mag-asawang Bato, he asked us if we saw a giant clam that rest at the mountain. We stared at each other in surprise, we didnt know anything about that and if we do we would love to take some pictures there too. Then we remembered that we saw a small path way near the boulders but we didnt took time to explore it. Men oh men, we felt that we didnt complete the exploration there. As we sit and talked about it, we decide to return to this island (Tingloy) to see if it's true or not.

Well guys, hope you like my five days adventure in Batangas from Cuenca to Tingloy island with my friends Niel, Tonio, Enan and Egay (Sanyapak) and with my family (my wife Chin and my kids and also my wife's family, the Gamo clan).

Thanks guys....

By the way, you can view the pictures at the Sanyapak site and some details of the climb.

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