Since Typhoon Florita was then within the so-called
Philippine Area of Responsibility, the Southwest Monsoon was relatively
enhanced thereby causing inclement weather throughout the archipelago.
Nevertheless, we did not let this dampen our spirits as Gani and I dared not
only to brave the elements but to take it a notch higher this time by doing a
twin dayhike.
In mountaineering jargon, a twin dayhike
(as the term implies) refers to summiting two separate mountains within a
single day. While this is no longer uncommon since there are also those who
even do triple dayhikes (also referred to as circuit hikes), it is safe to say that only the most hardcore of mountaineers dare to do a twin dayhike. In our case, we went for the Mt. Talamitan - Mt Batulao Twin Dayhike.
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| Mt. Talamitam is covered by storm clouds |
I left our house in Quezon City at 0430H and was able
to fetch Gani at the MRT Boni Station 10 minutes later. At 0610H, we arrived
at the jump-off point to Mt. Talamitam, Km. 83 along the Tagaytay-Batangas
highway in Sitio Bayabasan, Brgy. Aga, Nasugbu, Batangas.
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| That is the Highway (the truck is heading towards Nasugbu); the road leads to the trail leading to Mt. Talamitam |
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| B1 (Hardcore #1) |
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| B2 (Hardcore #2) |
Since as per our intended itinerary, we are
scheduled to summit Mt. Talamitam and supposedly get back to the jump-off point
before noontime, we already ate for breakfast the beef tapa that Bette prepared as our
lunch. At 0635H, we commenced our twin dayhike.
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| The 1st Registration Area located along the Highway (just after Km. 83) |
