Conquering Mt Pundaquit

 

View at Mt Pundaquit's Summit

Arriving almost an hour late of our assembly time at Victory Liner Monumento, our first part of the trip was definitely challenged when the bus driver said that our seats were already taken because they have already accepted chance passengers. I was just quiet at the side together with the other travel bloggers since I just met most of them for the first time and I felt guilty mainly because they were waiting for me to arrive. After several minutes of murmuring our rights because we already bought the tickets ahead of time and how they have exchanged our seats few seconds after they have announced the last call, we were finally given our seats with the 4am bus to San Antonio, Zambales (although the previous seat plan was not realized).

Start of the trek to Mt Pundaquit

Mt Pundaquit Trail (pardon for the glitch)

Mt Pundaquit view during the trek

I actually wasn't able to sleep out of excitement so I decided to sleep when the bus is on the road and also to avoid my motion sickness but my seatmates (Chin Chan, Joan, Ian) made it very difficult because I keep on listening to their continuous chit chat that also interests me. So to no avail, I wasn't able to have that bus sleep I was planning and I did gave in to my motion sickness (gross! haha).

Mt Pundaquit view during the trek

Mt Pundaquit's only available stream during the trek

Mt Pundaquit view during the trek

Anyway, the trip lasted for about 4 hours and when we reached San Antonio, Zambales, I was at my happiest because I am free from that very stomach sickening air conditioned bus ride! We proceeded to have our breakfast at the nearest market place and bought groceries for our two days camping. We finally arrived at Brgy Pundaquit's Beach at 10 am and started to trek at 10: 30 am. But before our trek began, we first registered individually to the baranggay hall in Pundaquit. Actually, some of us doesn't want to trek but what's the fun of being on a boat to  Anawangin Cove when everyone else is trekking and this trek is a special one for Ivan being that it's his 20th birthday. :)

Mt Pundaquit view during the trek

Mt Pundaquit view during the trek, almost at the summit

Mt Pundaquit view on the summit

Having been able to trek the mountains of Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, the trek in Mt Pundaquit was somehow smooth except for the excruciating heat of the sun at around noon that made my head terribly ache and made me wish that we have started way earlier than that. Also, since I don't have any jogging pants, the constant challenge of avoiding the sharp leafy grasses is present.

Yehez. At Mt Pundaquit's summit with Byron and Cai.
Photo Credit: Ivan

Mt Pundaquit view on the summit

Mt Pundaquit view on the summit

We have finally reached the summit, although some especially the first timers nearly gave up, at around 1pm and I definitely took the chance of taking what I just needed, as what I also did when we were on the trail, since we are also saving our batteries because there'll be no electricity in our camping site in  Nagsasa Cove .

Mt Pundaquit view on the summit

Mt Pundaquit view on the summit (ahem. the shoes. haha)

Mt Pundaquit view on the summit

We expected that the descend from the summit would be easy but we were proved wrong because the rocky and steep trail made some of my companions fall inevitably. My legs were already shaking with walking for several hours already and sadly, when we reached the foot of the mountain, we were not able to see or take photos of the river because it has dried up. We continued our trail of the rocky plains that was once a river and found our way to Anawangin Cove after 5 hours!

Descending from Mt Pundaquit's Summit

Descending from Mt Pundaquit's Summit

More details on this trip:
Pundaquits Beach before our trek
Mt. Pundaquit trek and reaching the summit
Passing the Anawangin Cove
Boat trip to Nagsasa Cove
Exploring the paradise, Nagsasa Cove
Capones Island





 

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