I woke up early as planned before 6 and got all my things together and left. I walked/carried my case a bit and made it to the main road Rizal avenue where I didn't have to wait long for a jeepney which had plenty of space for my suitcase. It also went to the bus terminal so I was there at 6.30, very early for the 7.30 minivan. I sat and read a bit before going to get some fruit at the market but only bought some bananas. The bus was reasonably on time but took a bit longer as we stopped a few times. I was at the front which is good but the person next to me was tall so took up more space. When we arrived I went to the hostel place but the room wasn't available yet so I left my bag and declined the 1200 peso tour and went to the underground river myself. It still cost 735 with a few forms to go through and then I needed a boat the cost of which gets shared. There were a couple waiting and they were from Winchester and there was supposed to be another 2 people but they couldn't get the tickets. So we waited a bit and a Japanese person turned up. I had a quick walk round to see if there was anyone else but there wasnt so it was 280 pesos each. The boat was ok but the tarpaulin roof meant we couldn't see much. We arrived on a crowded beach as all the boats go there. A short walk and we were near the underground river and had our life jackets still on, a helmet and an audio listening device. We shared a boat with some other people and all had our audio devices synchronised so we heard the same things. he boat went into the cave and the people at the front took loads of videos and photos. The light was not too good as we only had the lamp on the boat as light to conserve the nature of the place which meant that my photos were not good. The place was pretty anazing with large spaces, stalactites and stalagmites and other rock formations that the audio and the lamp pointed out. We were in there for a bit then came out, returned our stuff apart from the life vest and went back to the beach to get our boat back. Back at Sabang I said bye to the English couple called Dave and Amanda and went to climb a mountain nearby. I googled it and thought the trail started along the beach but that way went to a waterfall and I didn't see any marked path so I tried something that looked like a few people had gone up and might be a path. The first part was up some rocks and I got up but managed to knee the rock which gave me a cut. It wasn't much of a path at all but I thought the trees might thin out higher up so I carried on and I heard a sound begind and a youngster was there. He didn't speak much English but I think he wanted me to go back down. He went back maybe to find someone who spoke English but I didn't want to wait long so I headed off. The way got worse and there was some hard climbs up slippery rick areas but the trees were a lot better than jungles I'd done before though.
After a while I started thinking what was the point of this especially since I'd only gone a couple of hundred metres and the mountain peak was 3km away and I was needlessly damaging the forest and killing plants. So I turned around and headed back the same way I'd come. Finding my path was mostly easy but I managed to slip when a small rock gave way and grazed myself so I was pickinh up more scars. I looked at some of my old scars later and they were very visible against my tan. The rest of the way was a little tricky as going down meant it eas easier to slip but I made it and went back and signed out at the office and then got back to the main beach. I decided to see the rest of the town so headed out along the beach past the sheridan hotel and another place that had a 200 pesos buffet which was tempting. At the end of a longer walk than I expected there was a hut charging 10 peso to carry on and I wasn't at the zipline or jungle trek place yet but when I asked they said the zipline was closed for repair and the jungle trek was being used for a seminar. That just left the mangrove river cruise and well I'm not a big mangrove swamp fan. So I headed back a different way and saw a marine base which were huts and went past a bookshop. Back in town I got some BBQ pork and the guy in the shop told me yo get alcohol but he was slurring a lot and looked like he'd drunk a lot of it himself. Then the dutch couple from the Wanderers hostel recognised me and we chatted a bit before I went back to the hostel and had a rest. I got up around 7 and checked my things and I didn't have my towel and remembered leaving it on the end of my bed so I messaged the hostel and then went to the cheapest restaurant I'd seen. Dave and Amanda were both there and let me sit with them and then the Dutch also turned up along with Barry who owned the bookstore and a guy from Liverpool. Barry was from Melbourne and was pretty drunk so the restaurant had stopped serving him beers but he just went to a shop and got more. Dave made fun of Barry a bit as Barry kept repeating himself and talked a lot. We all left around 9.30 and I went back to the hostel where there were 2 tables of people chatting but I just read a bit and at 10.30 the lights all we t out and the bar was closed so I read a bit in my room before sleeping.
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