Trekking Mt. Manabu

Sto. Tomas, Province of Batanagas

I still can remember the advice of my mountain guide at Lombok island in Indonesia when I climbed Mt. Rinjani. He said that before climbing high altitude mountains such as Mt. Rinjani, it is best to do a training in preparation for a long trail hike and the altitude.

Jump-Off Point

According to him, the best training in preparation for a high altitude climb is also to climb a mountain. Having that in mind, I thought then that maybe the best way to maintain body condition ready for high altitude climb at anytime is also to continuously climb mountains regardless of the altitude.

So I decided to search the web once more for a mountain that is not on my "Climbed" list yet. Based on the recommendations that I saw from several mountain review websites and blogs, Mt. Manabu is a highly recommended mountain for minor hike that can be easily accessed from the Metro.

Trail

A short mountain background says, the mountain is less that 800MASL, and it is located at Sto. Tomas in the province of Batangas, south of Manila.

At the meeting place, I found that there were 13 of us. Together with us were 2 Indians and 3 Japanese participants.

Water Stream

We head on to Sto. Tomas Batangas at 0500H. Travel to the jump-off point, according to our van driver, normally takes 4 hours.

We were at the jump-off point few minutes past 0800H and started trekking at around 0830H. Mt. Manabu trail is actually a circuit, but not a traverse. The total trail length is almost 5KM and the trail is shaped like the Holy Rosary with the Giant Cross at the peak and a Grotto found somewhere else along the trail.

Manabu Summit

The trail is generally good and the overall hike was nice. It could have been even better if the trail was dry - slippery and muddy trail were our challenges.

At 1030H, we reached the summit and had a very early lunch. We had photo shoots after and then started our descent at 1130H.

Going down a muddy and slippery trail was even more challenging than going up. We reached the jump-off point at 1225H and tidy-up.

Cross at the Summit

We left the jump-off point at 1430H back to Manila. Along the way, we decided to reward our taste buds with one of Batangas' specialties - the famous "Bulalo" at a nearby restaurant.

At 1730H. We were back home safe.

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Photo gallery

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