For the Love of Traversing Mountains: Rock Climb at Cantabaco-Camp 8 to Camp7-Calbasa-an in Minglanilla

From NeRae that Gurl
Ah ideas, its something so simple yet so crazy. We had an idea that came from a question: "What if after rock climbing we trekked and camped after?" It was so intriguing to us that we actually did it. But then there are expectations and then there's reality. Even though it was a bit tiring, it was still an awesome experience! Hence, we decided to go do rock climbing in Cantabaco-Lutopan then right after we proceeded towards the border of Camp 4 and began our ascent towards our destination: the rolling hills of Calbasaan in Minglanilla, Cebu.

Rock Climb
Our sneaky strategic partners: Hannah and Liz, getting enough rest after rock climbing, secretly preparing for the trek!
After rock climb, before the trek faces - can you see some fatigue?
I have written about rock climbing in Cantabaco previously and most of the time it was only something done in a day or a day trek or travel. But our little group wanted more and decided to research possible routes that can make our 'goal' into a reality. Well it was almost a no-brainer since Toledo is in western Cebu and right next to it facing the east was Minglanilla. But we didn't want to go to Camp 7 proper since that's a protected reforested area. We asked around and our rock climbing guide happened to know this route towards Calbasaan and so we ended up going there.

Beautiful natural scenes along the way
Don't forget the self protraits
Calbasa-an is one of the most remote mountain barangays of Minglanilla town's Camp 7 and is basically the border barangay facing Camp 8-Toledo. To give you an idea of how remote this place is, it was only last 2015 that the sitio's elementary school finally had electricity since it's creation in 1980 through VECO's school electrification program.



We found a real-live-windows-xp-wallpaper!
I cannot really tell you how difficult the trail is since we were already a bit tired from the full-body exercise through our earlier rock climbing activity. So once we began the trek, we were already feeling the fatigue kcik in almost immediately at the first slope add to that the already weak legs, and don't forget our already sore shoulders while carrying our suddenly heavy bags full of imaginary stones. Lesson Learned: Don't do this again, maybe.





Our hike was interesting as weather shifted from hot-sunny, to cloudy with scattered rain showers while the occasional cold winds brushed from various directions. We saw a clear blue sky in one instance, then it rained, we also saw a rainbow then back to a sunny sunset. We arrived at our campsite barely with roughly about 15 minutes of daylight left. (See crazy weather above)

We sat down and wanted to just lay down when our hunger disturbed us and the ridiculously changing weather threatened to rain down on our relief; so we immediately set up our tents and like rabid animals prepared all our food that we needed to cook and fast!

Fiesta dinner: Carbonara, Buwad, Egg, Canned Goods (sausage, corned beef, luncheon meat), Rice and even roasted pork
When we trekked down towards Minglanilla, we simply followed an unpaved road that will exit towards the corner of Pakigne and into the National Highway! We became hitch hikers since it was really far away, which we only discovered after we exited Pakigne; and to think we were thinking of walking ... HAHAHAHAHAHA .. mao ni gitawag huna-huna ray gadako!


After Zumba in the morning, breakfast and break-camp, time for a groufie!
We were really lucky as the sari-sari store we bought softdrinks, trail snacks and water was heading down and we happen to fit in the owner's multicab somehow!

Homebound, until the next climb!
I can't remember how much we spent on this adventure but our group policy is that we will as much as possible not exceed our 1,000 peso budget every weekend outdoors getaway! And we were still within budget!

For the Love of Traversing Mountains: Rock Climb at Cantabaco-Camp 8 to Camp7-Calbasa-an in Minglanilla For the Love of Traversing Mountains: Rock Climb at Cantabaco-Camp 8 to Camp7-Calbasa-an in Minglanilla Reviewed by Vernon Joseph Go on Friday, April 07, 2017 Rating: 5

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