I arrived in bv at 7.30, earlier than anticipated. Traffic on the way was light, my only scare was an overtaking car blasting its horn at me, yards from my ears. I returned the gesture with a volley of swear words and an angry finger. It is beyond me why they do it, i knew he was there, he could have just passed me in silence. sadly I did not agree with lonely planets description of the buenavista. There was nothing at all pretty about it, the market was a collection of shacks in a dusty square by a filthy river inlet and the town was in fact a village with nothing going on. Just south of town i followed the guide books advice to try out a village ecotour. To get there i had to negotiate 5 kms of severe dirt track and navigate without signs, the locals deep in the mangrove forest had no grasp of English so i just followed my nose. By 8am i arrived at the river. The so called tour cost 100 pesos for a grumpy kid to paddle me up a nice river, show me an oyster farm, bamboo rafts on the bank with the delicacy hanging below, then return me to the boat station. And that was that. I did perk up when the nice old lady offered me a plate of oysters and was stunned to be only charged a quid! They tasted lovely and it was probably the weirdest breakfast i have ever had. As I may not have them again for quite a while i got ten down my neck. Once again, lonely planets claim that this tour was extra special proved to be inaccurate. I have realised the digs that were offered me are in the next town so in 5 minutes i will head there. If no joy i aim to do another tour and visit a nature reserve. Well this is a strange morning. Due to lack of facilities in Inabanga i decided not to search for the pension house. Also the nature reserve was closed so feeling a bit deflated i headed for Sagbayan peak. I am just about to leave because the place is a construction site. I walked through the concrete blocks, cement bags and sand pile to the viewing platform. The views justified the climb and 40 pence entrance fee but the sound of drills and hammering is not for me. My next plan of action is to find Danao adventure park about 15 clicks away according to the map. What condition the road is in to get there i have no idea but i doubt it is of yesterdays standard. I was right about the road, it was dirt track for 22 kms meaning it took me nearly two hours to get to the adventure park instead of 30 minutes. When I did eventually turn up at the gates my heart sank. Almost all the water borne activities were closed due to low levels of the river and the kayak trip was a non starter due to the crazy price they wanted for just 30 minutes of paddling. I felt so despondent i didnt even bother to ride around the park. The zip line poster looked good but as i fear heights there was no way i was doing that. Rather than retrace my steps back to Sagbayan i took the shorter off road option which took me back to Buenavista. This meant going over old ground until i reached the original Sagbayan turning. Right at this point i was not a happy bunny. My goal was to circumnavigate bohol but on this trip i wanted to try different activities, hard going when most of them are closed. So i kept on riding and have just pulled into a town aptly named Loon. I am in a little cafe in the middle of nowhere eating a bizarre meal of Hungarian sausage, hash brown and peas. This is not to my usual taste but i am so hungry and its the only fare on the menu that is available. Apart from me there are four very loud Americans who appear to be having an all day session on the beer. Considering my mood i have decided to press on to Cortes and see if the firefly sunset trip is running. Tomorrows options were seeing two of the biggest waterfalls but given the lack of water i might not bother. I cant believe how far i have ridden today and in just three days i have covered 80 percent of the island. I will remain positive and go with the flow, life is still awesome despite the odd setback here and there. One bonus that i forgot about was the Tarsier sanctuary back at the peak. Although there was only one, i got a decent photograph so it hasnt all been terrible and its not every day you get to see the worlds oldest living primate! And, relax. After finding no digs in Cortes i made the almost final push to tagbilaran meaning i am only 20 kilometres away from the finish line at alona beach on Panglau. I have found a tidy place for 850 pesos a night and have booked for two nights so i can use it as a base. There is cable, wifi, a pool with gardens and it is right on the water, perfect for sunsets claims the lonely planet. I will confirm whether this is the case later. There is also a restaurant and gardens so despite the room not being top notch the peace and tranquility makes up for it. Tomorrow at 6 pm i will fight my way back through the traffic to Cortes and do the firefly trip. I have an option of boat or kayak, which one i choose depends on how energetic i am feeling. My swim in the pool would have been perfect had it not been so dirty. I managed 4 lengths before deciding i didnt want to risk catching a disease. It is still baking hot so the dip was just what i needed after a hard day on the bike. My issue now is i have the wheels for another 6 days so i need to read the book and see what else i can do in that time. If it involves going far so be it. Thats it for today, i aim to do bugger all apart from have dinner later.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 08:45:32 +0000
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