MT BATULAO *Campsite*

MT BATULAO *Old Trail*

Campsite

This was officially my first climb in Philippines; I was so excited to go for the climb with my school’s mountaineering club. The Mountaineering club chose MT Batulao because according to them, it is a minor climb that would be nice and a good experience for us.

We got to the place at 5 pm  and then we took a tricycle to our main stop. I actually thought that the tricycle would take us up to the foot of the mountain, and then we would automatically get to the main place but I was so wrong. 

When the tricycle dropped us, they stopped where the road wasn’t tarred much, it was a bit messy. As we started our walk, I started to see farms which were on the sides of the mountain and wondered how farmers go down there to plant.  Suddenly it started raining, good thing I had my raincoat so I happily brought it out and wore it, then I realized my bag wasn’t covered, I decided to use the raincoat to cover my bag, which sadly prevented the rain coat from covering some parts of my body. I would definitely get a bikers raincoat I told myself, because it covers literally everything. 

As we got deeper into the mountain we had to bring out our lamps.  Unfortunately for me I forgot to buy batteries for my lamp *SIGH*. I was without light; I started using my so called 20/20 vision and the light from my fellow group members to find my way. No one had an extra lamp or even a flash light. I made up my mind that next time I would get as much batteries as possible handy because being without a lamp wasn’t funny at all.

Still i walked in the rain and darkness without a lamp, the road was so muddy, some of my friends kept falling, even the group leaders had to go ahead and tell us where and where not to step on.  Someone in our group was in so much of a hurry that he got tired of walking ahead of me, he slipped, right after he slipped he started rolling *OMG* it was so funny, I laughed at him, I knew it could have been me if I hurried like he did, it wasn’t so I still laughed anyways.. LOL

It became too dark and tiring I wondered when we would get to our camp site even after so many stops. I was so tired, my back kept hurting, I’ll admit that was most of what was in my bag was junk food, I had pringles, chocolate, biscuits, candy and juice that I ended up not eating after the trip *RME*.

Finally it stopped raining and we got to the campsite around 8:30pm. It was so quiet, though there were other people that camped there. The camp site had a small toilet which sent a small relief down my spine.

It was now time to pitch my tent which was a big war. Just a few minutes after, I realized I brought the wrong tent *SIGH* I also noticed that I brought a beach tent that had no fly sheet to prevent rain from getting into the tent, I was totally screwed. I wondered what else would go wrong, my shoes were already wet, I had no lamp and if it rains later I would be sleeping in a tent pool.

Some of my friends helped me with my tent, I used everyone’s raincoat to cover my tent, and in my mind I had done something great. Meanwhile others started making dinner, we had pasta and that was one thing that made me happy till I dozed off. It started raining around 3am; my tent was flooded, even though it was under a tree. My tent mate and i spent the night in our leaders tent and the leaders spent the night seating outside with an umbrella. It was a sweet thing for them to do....