After three incredible but long months in Nepal, it was time for a new adventure. It felt like an eternity since I had been in the ocean. That’s quite odd for me, a traveler who used to spend 90% of the year in the tropics. So, I decided to make the journey to the recently, re-opened Philippines.
Pema had booked herself in for 1-2 months of focused free-diving training on Bohol. Originally, I thought I might join here there but after thinking it through, and also having visited Bohol extensively in the past, I decided to head out on an adventure of my own.
At first, I planned to pick up my bike from storage in Cebu and do a bike and hike trip down through Mindanao. That was until I discovered Apo, the highest peak in The Philippines, would be closed. The three other highest peaks in Mindanao were also closed due to Covid. That put a halt to those plans.
I quickly pivoted and decided to do a Visayas bike packing trip starting in Cebu and then jumping over to circle Negros before finishing in the lesser-known island of Panay. It would be on Panay I would have a crack at one of the hardest multi-day hikes in the Philippines known as ‘The Trilogy’. It’s a three-peak traverse taking upwards of five days.
This trip would involve a lot of logistics and on-the-go planning. However, it would also be quite simple in nature as I rode my bike with minimal gear attached to the bike in two small bags.
We arrived to Manila and had a sweet stay at the fancy Marriott thanks to accumulated points from our stays in Nepal. It was then onto Cebu or me where I collected my bike from my friend Kia, who had been storing it for me. I took it into the bike shop and had them service it, add on a bike rack, panniers and some small storage bags.
I was all set for 1.5 months of adventure. During the pandemic I told myself I want to camp more and head out on some big bike adventures. Since then, I’ve camped more nights than I haven’t while climbing and trekking through Tanzania, Nepal and Pakistan. Now, here I am setting off on a solo bike packing trip through the Philippines
