Crosscountry Biking: (Day 1) Banaue-Bangaan-Ducligan

This ride was on: December 26, 2008

Note: Apology for the not so good pics since it was mostly rainy/foggy during the whole trip (thank God for my waterproof Dicapack!).

After a 9-hour trip from Manila to Banaue, Ifugao, me and my college friend Vei (the same guy I was with when I biked from Banaue to Sagada last May 2008, unpacked our bike bags and had breakfast first.  

It was very foggy that day. 7am, purely clouds invade the town proper. As we pedalled the drizzle had a numbing effect on our faces. It felt like it was aircon all-over the place and as if somebody also had the electric fans on. Numbing cold. It was very hard to pedal since it was cold and the road was either very muddy, muddy, or muddy and rocky.  

With 40 Liters worth of bagpack, not to mention the added baggage on our bike's beam rack, we pedalled to Bangaan. Somebody mistakenly named Bangaan as Sanga-an in Google Earth, so when I was still doing a recon using it I had a hard time finding Bangaan. It was not our destination (no not just yet). Mayoyao was. So we decided to rent a Nipa Hut and left our heavy baggage there. We were told that Mayoyao was still mountains away, so we just brought the basic bike necessities.  

Upon reaching Ducligan, we saw a sign that Mayoyao was still 20kms. away. Meaning approx. 20kms. uphill. It was 3pm back then so we cancelled and headed back to Bangaan to spend the night there. It was 7-8km uphill back to Bangaan. Spending overnight at Bangaan was quite an experience, seeing rice terraces around, heaving a meal with mountains and clouds all around you, with the super friendly locals who would never fail to respond to your 'good mornings' while chewing their 'moma' (nga-nga). I felt at home!Ü  



It was a good thing they had electricity at the huts, we recharged our batteries and cellphones. When night time set in, it was already pitch black outside. We slept like we were in Never-never land and I bet it was a snore-fest lolz! Pajamas, bonnets, sweaters/jackets were a necessity, a blanket was not enough. You won't be able to sleep because of the creeping coldness if you're not wearing the right clothes.


More pics to come in the next albums...we had 5 straight days of biking around lots of mountains, mud, rain, rock gardens. This is just day 1.