October 28, 2012
San Miguel, Bulacan
I initially planned this climb since my younger brother wished to conquer his first mountain. Not sure how he'll take trekking physically, i researched for an easy climb, and of course somewhere near their place in Bulacan.
Thus Mt. Manalmon. Luckily, we are joined by a bunch of adventurers from my travel group online. Since i know them to always be a bunch of joy on trips like this, i had been very very excited.
5AM
Since i and my brother will be coming from southern Bulacan, the rest of the group started their journey an hour earlier.
8AM
From where the tricycle lead us, we still have to cross Madlum river and we have two great options:
Bamboo Raft (Cost:P5)
or Monkey Bridge (Cost: Your Life. LOL)
Of course most of the group wanted to try the monkey bridge. I myself had been very excited. Although the thought of falling from the monkey bridge to the river excites me, i fear that my things will drown in the water so we still payed P5 for the raft to transport our things to the other side of the river.
10AM
Being a big group as we are, it took us forever to cross the bridge one at a time. We started our trek almost two hours after we arrived at the jump-off.
11AM
But since everyone's hyped up, we 're already at the summit after an hour. Now that's what we call makin up for the lost time.
The summit is not as grand as other mountains as i've seen. But it sure still fits the bill. The camp is cozy and very clean. By this time a dreadful mistake floated into my realization - i forgot to charge the battery of my camera. Such a downer. Everybody knew how i love taking pictures during trips. Oh well, thanks to Ron, Jef and ELmer for some of the pictures in this blog entry.
12NN
After having lunch near the campsite, with the urgency which i dont know where from still there, we got back to the jump-off in less than an hour.
1PM
They say the real adventure in Madlum begins in their spelunking offerings. After everyone secured their headlamps, we headed straight to Bayukbuk Cave.
I always wanted to try spelunking and i am so glad i had this first on my list.
The start of the trip is yet another assault, more complicated than what we had in Manalmon. That's a great surprise for me since the climb that morning is sobrang bitin.
Steep assault was followed by a Boulder stunt down the mouth of the cave connection. I am now officially in love with spelunking!!!
We then started our 3 hour crawl across the cave an were mesmerized by the rock formations, crystal like stalactites inside the cave. It was so captivating hugging muds inside had also been a treat.
4PM
We finished the cave connection in time and moved our muddy selves to the Madlum river for my most anticipated part of the trip - river swim!!!
7PM
This large group tidied up and made its way home. I'd prefer to call this Madlum rather than Manalmon since the hill is probably just 10% of what this place can offer. With some more peaks for climbing, more caves for spelunking, and river for swimming... i sure will come back.
Damage Report:
Bus Ride from Cubao to Kamias, San Miguel Bulacan - P130 one way
Tricycle form Kamias to Madlum - 200/4pax one way
Brgy Madlum Checkpoint - P15 per vehicle
Manalmon Guide - 300/10 pax (this is required by the registration)
Registration Fee - P5
Madlum River raft - P5
Bayukbuk Cave Guide - P30/head (additional caves in your itinerary will have additional guide fees. But don't worry, it'll all be worth it since the guides are trained and very much accommodating)
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