Camille goes Hiking: Mt. Daraitan

I have a love-hate relationship with mountains, but mostly love. I generally love mountains, the scenery, stories of locals, experience and mostly the view on the summit. What I hate when climbing is the trail, I get tired easily (I am not physically fit alright) but that's the way it is! You need to go through hardships to get to the top (literally!!), they said. My first hike with friends is Mt. Daraitan. It was suggested by our friend, Nadine, she told us that it's a beginners climb but SHE WAS WRONG!

The mountain is part of the Sierra Madre mountain range, it is located in Tanay, Rizal. It was kinda far, but thakfully my friend's boyfriend offered to drive us there! We are all excited, because its our first time to hike together.

When we got to the Barangay and also the Jump-off, we registered and secured a guide for Php 500. After that, we bought additional supplies in the nearby sari-sari store, and before we start our hike, we prayed first for our safety. And the hike starts!

If I remembered correctly, the whole mountain is divided into what they call "camps", and there are 4 camps in total. The first part of the hike was gradually ascending, and after that it was all assault. The trail was generally steep, or maybe its just for us because we are all beginners. We asked our guide, and he said that the mountain is not considered a beginner's climb (THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, NADINE) because the trail is 70% assault, which means it is steep and you will need to get your hands dirty and crawl for support!

Since our guide is nice and he knows that we aren't professional hikers, he lets us rest for as long as we like (5 -10 minutes), which consumed our time HAHAHA. During breaks, we drink a little water, eat snacks and take a good look of the view. (TIP: When hiking, it is better to take a little sip of water, just to wet the throat. If you drink too much water, it'll be hard to climb up because of the weight of the water in your stomach.)

It took us almost 3 hours to reach the summit! Which according to our guide, we are his first group that took that long. HAHAHA! On the summit, we ate a quick lunch before we enjoy the view because we couldn't handle our hunger anymore. Afterwards, we went to the rockies part of the summit and inhaled the good view and took a lot of pictures.

Look at the majestic view of Mt. Daraitan summit!! (And the heart shaped river)

And of course, we took mandatory "barkada" pics and most importantly individual shots to post on our Instagram!!

All the sweat and crawling we're forgotten once we saw the view. It was so beautiful and then I remembered why I love climbing mountains and the reason why I do this extremely tiring activity. Despite the hardships during the climb up, it will be replaced by pure bliss, a good view, bragging rights and IG worthy pics!

That is all! See you soon!

With love,

Camille <3

#mountain #hiking #Philippines