PANIQUIAN FALLS

RE-ROUTE TO PANIQUIAN FALLS

It was because of the rainy season that led us to Paniquian Falls instead of our first choice destination Tarak Ridge.

We kinda laid low to hiking due to heavy rainfalls for the past month of August.

As scheduled, we planned to summit Tarak Ridge but we’ve been discouraged by some of the other hikers. They said that it would be difficult to summit at the condition were the soil is damp, muddy and wet.

(Lysa, Shane, Jessa, Ric, Chard, Darrel and Ronald)

And so we took the advices of the experts, we prepared for PANIQUIAN not knowing that it would be the longest hike of our lives.

Amongst our squad was my college classmate who happened to be a former resident in Mariveles and also a hiker himself. It was our lucky day that among other hikers was also his colleague which happens to be very familiar to the Paniquian Trek. So no need for a guide, we just followed the expert’s trails and whistled and shouted hip-hip hooray every other waking minute we want to.

We’ve been early, so we took the leverage to take a few snaps at the Barangay Hall while others are taking their CR breaks.

(Shane, Chard, Ric and Jessa)

Before hitting the trek, we stuffed ourselves with energizers called breakfast.

From national road to DENR station it will take 30 to 45 minutes leg work. Some roads are pave and with shade.

Some roads are muddy and hot.

And so here we are at the DENR station taking a selfie along with so many tarps from groups of hikers that was once took up the challenges of the famous Tarak Ridge.

From left to right: Richard, Ric, Ronald, Jessa, Lhai, Madam Jelah, Loise, Darrel, Nino - Dont mind the one who's holding the selfie stick :)

We ran out of water supply these streams are our life saver.

First hike for these young land at the back (ric and chard) - it's also our first time to bond with them our long lost friends at sea hahaha

First hike for these two young lads at the back hoorraaaaayyy!

These are the other hikers that we've been following..

Nadz manages to goof around to

pass the heat of the sun and

tiring trek.

After a slippery uphill climb we had to rest just for a couple of minutes to renew boost our energy.

We can already hear the rushing of the water and we thought "this is it!" But much to our surprise, we had to jump on and off the rocky stream for 2 more hours. How's that?

Past 12pm we decided to have lunch before continuing, everyone was so tired. Jumping on and off the rocks is knee breaking. Some rocks are slippery so you have to be careful or else you'll end up soaking with cold water or worse you could hit your head among the rocks.

On our way back, we saw a large snake (cobra) just coming out from his nest looking out for prey. I was shouting "ahas, ahas wag kayong gagalaw! We were all in panic mode and don't know what to do, Lysa was so nervous shouted "ate shane! ate shane! anung gagawin ko?!!" As her adrenaline rises she jump on and off the slippery rocks with great distances. After the snake was gone and all of us were composing ourselves to go on with the hike, Lysa burst out with a loud voice and said "hala panu ako napunta dito?" we all cracked up and burst out with laughter recalling all of our funny reactions.

It was past 7:00 P.M. when we were still walking down the forest using our phone's as flashlight. While walking we were goofing around and talking about scary stories from the horror movies we've watched from the past. Some of our colleagues were left behind and we were constantly shouting and calling their names from time to time to keep track if they ever get lost.

I thinks it was 8:00 P.M. that we finished washing up and changing our clothes and drove back to Olongapo City.

We will always remember this place.

Its has been the longest hike of our lives and the most memorable one.