The Soul Explorer: The Adventure | Mt. Batulao (811 MASL)

With my co-soul explorer at the peak of Mt. Batulao

Batangas is a first class province of the Philippines, located on the southwestern part of Luzon. It has a combination of plains and mountains. One of these mountains is Mt. Batulao with 811 MASL, the name “Batulao” is from the tagalog word of “Bato sa Ilaw” (light in a rock).

It derived from incidence happens that the sun situates between the two mountaintops and it generates a scene that described by the locals as “ilaw sa dalawang bato” (light between two rocks) or “Bato sa Ilaw”.

I thought it was all a dream that I can go up to the summit of a mountain. But I was wrong because I was able to climb a mountain. My first mountain climbing was in Mt. Tagapo in Binangonan, Rizal. Opportunity came in again that my friend invited me to join him, together with the other friends, to go and experienced the very exciting adventure.

This time, my second adventure is in Mt. Batulao in Nasugbu, Batangas.

I met my friends at EDSA-Taft around 6:00 in the morning from there we rode a bus going to Nasugbu, Batangas and we left in the Bus Station at 6:50am. It takes two hour’s travel from Manila to Nasugbu, we arrived in Evercrest, jump-off point, at 8:50am.

The moment we arrived at the Evercrest Golf Course, the jump-off point, I feel the coolness the same feeling when I visit in Tagaytay. Also, because the time we went there was raining. The place is prone to muddiness especially during the wet season (from June to October). It’s raining that day but the adventure is still going on.

trekking to a muddy path

At the jump-off point, there are kids who offer their services to guide hikers. So, we hired one to have a companion and guide. I salute you, Reynald (name of the kid) for conquering the peak of the mountain. He is thirteen years old and he said that the maximum of the service he had in one day is two. He still going to school on weekdays. He will guide hikers on weekends.

There are two ways to do a traverses, the Old to New Trail and the New to Old Trail. We decided to take the Old to New trail. At the fork, we took the left side which led us to Old to New Trail, downward trail that go into the woodlands.

We arrived at the camp 1 where we registered our names and this is also the first base campsite. After registering, we went up to the next campsite and the trek is taking us up and down, up and down. It’s getting harder in each step until you’ve reach the final assault. Then, the SUMMIT! Success! I did it!

We rested for awhile and met the other hikers and we took pictures together with the ladies hikers. After a few minutes, we started the descent via new trail, the opposite of the old trail at the summit. Arrived at the new trail campsite in a few hours, registered again our names. We ate our lunch at the campsite and then, back to the jump-off point, Evercrest, around 3:00pm, cleaned-up nearby the sari-sari store.