Bulakaw-Toong River Trek

A moron literally makes the drop off

Trip type: River trekking
Technical designation: wala, whatever
Who it is for: People who don't mind soaking in not so dirty water, people who love to walk

Things that you may want to bring

Slippers: unless it’s merell or unless you are okay with dripping your feet until they rot, do not wear shoes

Food: no stores, no restos. You may not bring lunch if you feel like you want to make this your last trip

Water for a 10-km walk: apparently, the river source is not a water-purifying station so you need to drink from somewhere else (your own water bottle!)

Clothes: one full get up, from the undies to your Ayala outfit. You will swim, stumble face flat, rub yourself against filthy moss

Rope: this is a bit optional, except that you could use it in case there is flood. The river could flood even if the skies are clear. At the far end of the river are some mountains and when it rains from there, the obvious will happen to the lowland. The fact that water travels faster on steeper surface does not help. I call this flooding on a sunny day the jejemon effect: because if a flood catches you by surprise, the least you can do is “jejeje.”

River trek from Bulakaw (yeah, I prefer this spelling). Who would have thought? The closest that can get to a river in Bulakaw, Pardo is that massive filth that flows along its boundary to Talisay. But we did get to a clean river all right. (Clean-looking, at least).

The jump-off point is at Candulawan, Talisay City. To get there, just take that road beside Prince Warehouse Bulakaw and ask your way there.

Nobody will respect you if you drown here.

I: The chill2x river trek
This is where the river pretends to be friendly and gives us some profile-pic-worthy views while we strode easily. This is also where you walk like a man and scream like a girl when you step on some slippery rock.

Icky yucky, these rock formations look slimy but they are not really. they are similar to the ones you find inside caves

We swam, swallowed some water, and found out the horror that was upstream (yeah, the river is not as clean as it looks)

II: The inevitable swim
This part could be easier if you know how to swim with a heavy water-proof backpack on. But I got neither (no swim, do dry bag). At one point we had to do some bag ziplining. It was fun! (For the bags at least)

Spying on the river trekkers: to jump or not jump on them?

Bags are more important than humans

III: Dark cave and roping

You know what is stupid? Here is what: you take a plastic, put your phone inside it to water-proof it, then not know that the plastic is open on the other end and see your phone take a plunge. The more stupid part is when you realize that you don’t have to water-proof your phone at all because the water is shallow.


Anyway, why is there a cave? I guess it’s part of the mountains that flank either side of the river. The water bore though it and charan! it became coco crunch! Cave, I mean. I ate cheese this morning. Must be the cause.

We could not walk the whole length of our mini cave because the waters ahead were unpredictable. So we had to go to the side, climb at some boulder that led us to the higher part of a hill. Going up and down the hill required some rope. Actually, if you know how to cling your way through mossy places, you would not have much use for a rope.

Minicave: this is where you can drop your phone

As opposed to doping, roping is less addictive and require some real effort. Just remember to cling to dear life on that rope. Don’t worry, the flood is the only real danger in this trek so this roping part should not scare you.