«» Travel Notes 013: Lessons learned from the “most difficult” mountain and the “most amazing” sandbar of the PH
How to deal with cramps and how to live your experiences
HELLO. I’m Atom, and you’ve received my Travel Notes, which I send out once a week, every week:
→ On the weeks I travel, I share stories, reflections, and lessons.
→ On the weeks I stay home, I share tips, tools, and templates.
My goal here is to bring you with me to all 82 provinces of the Philippines. Solo travel can be thrilling, but I enjoy my travels more when I have someone to share it with.
I started the hike very strong. Despite carrying a 15lb backpack, I managed to pace with Johann, AJ, and Joshua, who only carried day bags. Our guide told us if we kept up our pace, we would reach Mayo’s Peak by 3 PM, a full 2 hours ahead of schedule.
So we took our time with lunch.
I sat down, took off my shoes, and enjoyed my calamares.
We resumed our hike an hour after arriving in camp 2, but I immediately felt my legs tightening with cramps. I fell to the back of the group and slowed down. Eventually, I decided to sit and stretch. After ten minutes, I tried going again, only to be forced back down with cramps. I sat and stretched again, repeating the process three times before deciding to rest longer.
I was now an hour behind my group.
Luckily, the group behind me were friends: War suggested I take salt, Miko and Trei offered me power gel, while Abz stayed behind me to coach me out of my cramps. It was a slow, agonizing recovery, for which I am now thankful. While walking, I got to know Abz, and I got to reflect on my journey so far to visit all 82 provinces of the Philippines.
I learned…
Cramps occur because of a lack of blood flow. The worst thing you can do when you get cramps is cool down. Keep moving. Just go very slow. Abz's advice was to inhale and exhale for every step. Yes, that slow.
To prevent cramps, rest no more than 20 minutes and warm yourself up before resuming. I did 15 squats before starting any assault for the rest of G2.
When you are hit with cramps, consume as much salt and sugar with your water as possible. You can bring both in their powder form for a more concentrated hit.
Hiking, traveling, and life is less about finishing and more about doing. After all, what’s at the end? A certificate? A passport stamp? An IG reel? Are those more amazing than the highs and lows of the road? I think not. So why rush?
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
– T.S. Eliot
This was the opening line of the DENR’s briefing video for our G2 hike. Nice quote. I thought to myself. I’ll save that for later.
But what T.S. Eliot failed to capture was the journey home. It’s easy to see how far you can go; the challenge is to see if you can get back from where you’ve gone.
On day 1, the biggest problem of the group was my cramps which lasted for an hour and a half. Otherwise, everyone seemed fresh and happy throughout our 8-hour hike.
On day 2, we began hiking at 4 in the morning to find ourselves literally with our faces to the wall. We had to engage all four limbs just to avoid falling off G2’s infamous sawtooth ridge. We arrived at the summit exactly in time for lunch at 12 NN, eight hours after we started hiking. Four hours into our descent, the sole of my left shoe came off. Meanwhile, Johann and Nirelle damaged their knees, so watching them go down was excruciating. By the time we reached our camp at 8 PM, I could tell Atew and Aedric were already at their breaking point. Atew sat down and didn’t get up for another 30 minutes, while Aedric immediately entered his tent and crashed. Our only saving grace was AJ: he sped ahead with the porters to set up our tents in time for our arrival.
Day 3 was relatively smooth. We began hiking at 8 in the morning. We had only one hiccup on our five-hour descent, and that was the sole of my right shoe. It came off just like on my left foot, so I found myself flapping around down the mountain. Eventually, a porter suggested it would be safer if I continued without soles. I cut them off.
Meanwhile, porters around me were hiking twice my speed despite wearing only slippers and carrying twice my load. Our guide, kuya Jerry, said this was his third time to summit G2 this week.
And he was going back up the day after.
I learned…
You can get by with a lot less than you think. But a lot more will go wrong than you think.
Reminder to self: The best highs start as lows.
My parents were at the end of the trail to give us huge hugs and mega congratulations. We brought out our photos and shared everything we experienced. They were as excited to hear our stories as we were to share.
They even brought us three watermelons and a tub full of biko to celebrate.
Looking back at our photos, I realized the hike was a blur. Countless times I remember someone in the group saying, “We did that pala.”
From the jump-off point, we took an hour-long trike ride to the port, where we could take a boat to Cresta de Gallo. During this trike ride, I sat beside my dad. While we were hiking G2, my mom and my dad were exploring Sibuyan Island, so I asked him how his three days went. It wasn’t until he went on an exciting recount of running around the island, trekking to waterfalls, enjoying the resort, and more that I realized he had experienced as much as we had.
We set up camp for the 4th night in a row in Cresta de Gallo. This time we were a complete family. My parents were grilling shrimp and eggplants with Atew while Aedric and Joshua were slicing tomatoes and onions to mix with our salted egg. Johann and AJ were setting up the camp while Nirelle was making a bonfire.
We had an amazing dinner.
Right before going to sleep, Aedric went up to me. Thank you, Ahia, he said.
I learned…
Seeing my family happy and complete was all I needed to see. I feel grateful to have let my parents explore and travel as they had me do when I was a kid. I would imagine the achievement of completing all 82 provinces would come second to this moment,
We are very (very) small. Any moment that makes us feel bigger than we are is a good moment. Do activities that expand your sense of being (hike) and do them with people that make you want to be bigger than you are (friends and family).
How can you enhance your travel experience? By finding people to share it with. It will make the journey more difficult, that’s for sure: you move slower as a group, it’s harder to make decisions, and planning becomes more complex. But in exchange, you have someone to talk to, relate with, and remember with.
I started reading a book yesterday called The Inner Game of Tennis. Here is an excerpt from its Preface: ”It’s not about the tennis… It’s not about the win or the loss; if we’re here to experience, then we are free.”
Until next week,
Atom
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