Mt Talomo and Mt. Apo - The Year-end climb (Day 2)

Day 2.

Due to the bad weather last night. We woke up early....4am early. The weather was too bad that I can hear the wind rumbling the trees. I decided to sleep some more and woke up around 7am. :)

My guide and climb buddy was busy fixing our breakfast inside the other tent while we exchanged stories of the weather. It was too bad that rain water rushed inside our tents while we were asleep (we shared one big ground sheet....not a good idea!)

As soon as were done with our breakfast we hurriedly break camp to make amends with the late itinerary. By 9am, we left Talomo summit. 

We took extra precautions traversing since it was wet and the roots are very slippery. We arrived at the open ridge near junction where a new trail to Kidapawan was made at around 10:15am. It was too foggy and too windy. Still I managed to take a photo.

At the open ridge.

It was a non stop walk all the way down Talomo grounds. Then came this 20-foot falls (more or less) signalling that we're already at the foot of Talomo. Time check 11:35am. Just right under the wire for lunch.

Still beautiful even on a rainy morning.

We setup tarp to somehow shield us from the rain while we took our early lunch before continuing with the trek.

See that slanted log in the middle? That's our way up. :)

After were done with lunch and some more stretching. We resumed trek by 12:30pm.

I was busy chatting with Willy on what to expect on the approaching trail. He only said 2 things. Rolling terrain and leeches. Of course what stucked in mind were the last word....leeches. True enough, I can see my climb buddy, King pausing from time to time to remove the ever persistent leeches away from his feet. I, as well surveyed my shoes to check if the little bloodsuckers have already invaded my skin....well what do we know....they're already present. Lots of them! I just removed them one by one (not terrified by them anymore....really!) but as we progressed to a much elaborate trails, I just shrugged about it. Better to put my attention on the trail than to focus my time with the tiny parasites.

The 'friendly limatik (leech)' bites. Total bites... 30! :)

The trail became a little manageable after 2 hours of walking. The guide said we're almost at the campsite. With that, I smiled and after 30 minutes more of walking on a flat and mossy trail came Camp Basingon. And alas, there's a makeshift roof made of huge transparent plastic!

at Camp Basingon with King and Willy.

Dinner served at Camp Basingon.

After deliberation from my guide and climb buddy, we've decided to stay for the night at Camp Basingon. Factors that we've considered: bad weather, better shelter since it has a makeshift roof which gave us a drier campsite, small bonfire (apologies, LNT friends) to keep us warmer.

Below details of my Day 2 itinerary:

DAY 2

0700 wake up call. Prepare breakfast.
0800 breakfast. Break camp.

0900 start trek 

1135 ETA river near camp basingon. Lunch. 1230 resume trek

1500 ETA Camp Basingon. Pitch tent.

1700 prepare dinner.

1800 dinner and socials.      

2100 lights out

Disclaimer: This blog entry was done using my android phone only. :)

Watch out for Day 3 of my Talomo-Apo trip.

Till then.