We definately are not learning. Another trip away and another night with no sleep. This time was Mount Pulag, Central Luzon. Mount Pulag is the second highest peak in the Philippines at an altitude of 2922m. It's located North of Baguio and the only way to get there is by bus and then jeepney. Our trip is best described as an itinery below. Enjoy!!

Friday 24th - 9pm
Leave the apartment and travel the hour up to the bus stop by taxi with Kar Weng. Friday night traffic in Manila is crazy. Also factor in the fact that Saturday is a public holiday to celebrate the People Powers Revolution so EDSA, the main road through Manila, is half closed. We arrive at the bus stop at 10pm to catch the bus at what we thought was 11pm. Turns out the actual time the bus was leaving was 11.30 and it was running nearly an hour late so we didn't end up leaving Manila until nearly 12.30am.

Saturday 25th - 9.30am
Arrive in Baguio. What is normally a 5 - 6 hour trip took 9 due to traffic and roadworks. It also turns out that Baguio celebrates a flower festival during the month of February so the traffic was pretty heavy. The bus trip was hell. Jodi managed to get a couple hours broken sleep but Brenden couldn't get comfortable and only managed about 2.5 towards the end. We find our Jeepney and then start the ride towards Mt Pulag along some pretty windy roads.

Saturday 11am
Arrive at a little cafe beside the road for brunch. We didn't eat much as we weren't overly hungy and had also packed our lunch the night before and we were sort of expecting to have lunch a little bit later on.

Saturday 12pm
Jump back into the Jeepney and continue on the windy road. The scenery was quite amazing as you climbed up and down through the hills and valleys, over rivers and around dams.

Saturday 1.30pm
Arrive at the briefing area. Here we had to watch a video explaining all the do's and don'ts in the National Park. The funniest thing of the whole briefing was some of the comments that the lady who was running it came out with. One of the things she said was we are not allowed to par-take in 'Pictorial Nudity' on the mountain. Basically no streaking (sorry Brenden). And also, if you're on your honeymoon, noises while love making is to be kept to a minimum. ROFL. What happens if you're not on your honeymoon - can you make lots of noise then........

Saturday 2.30pm
Back in the Jeepney to drive up to the Ranger Station. Again, the scenery is amazing. About 15mins from the Ranger Station the Jeepney over heats and we're forced to sit by the road for about 40 mins whilst the driver fixes a hose under the engine. The last bit of the trip, Brenden rode up on the top of the Jeepney. The view was spectacular! He was dodging overhead water pipes and the odd powerline all whilst driving on the edge of a mountain that's about 1km straight down. They grow a lot of the vegetables for the rest of the Philippines up here, all on the side of a mountain.

Saturday 4.00pm
Leave the Ranger Station and start walking. The walk itself is quite easy apart from about 50m which is pretty steep and is almost a climb. The bags were the biggest issue as they started to get pretty heavy about half way up. We walked with Karweng and we set a blistering pace up the mountain. The guide we were first with even struggled to keep up with us and had to swap with another guide. We were trying to get to base camp before dark.

Saturday 6.15pm
Arrive at Base Camp (2500m) just as the sun was going down. We set up our tent in the dark and then proceeded to cook dinner. We had torches so it wasn't too bad. Everyone else rocked up about an hour later. About the same time, it started to get cold, really cold. We were told this was going to happen but we thought they were describing 'Filippino Cold'. We were wrong! We think it got down to about 5 degrees and we definately didn't pack for this. Brenden had packed 2 sets of boardshorts, 3 shirts and a jumper. Jodi had packed a pair of long, thin fisherman pants, shorts, shirts and a jumper also. We froze our arses off. I guess any where in the world at an altitude of 2500m it's gonna be cold.

Saturday 9.30pm
Finally get to bed for a sleep that consisted of waking up every hour or so freezing, re-adjusting the sleeping bags and snuggling up to one another trying to get warm. There was definately no noisy love making going on - was definately too cold if you know what we mean

Sunday 3am
Time to get up and start the walk to the summit. We were still freezing but the walk did warm us up a fair bit. We got to the summit (2932m) at about 4.45am. Then we bunkered down to try and stay warm. We ended up wedging ourselves between these little shrubs to keep the wind off us, then Jodi sat between Brenden's legs and wrapped the sleeping bag insert around the both of us. While we were sitting there, teeth chattering away, we were looking back along the path where everyone was walking. All you could see was a long, winding path of torches and headlamps - it looked really cool.

Sunday 5.45am
Sunrise! Wow! This has got to be one of the most amazing things we have ever seen. As the sun rises, all the clouds roll in below you and you watch the sun rise as it casts it's light over a blanket of white. It would be like watching it over a snow field or something. It was really amazing. The added benefit as well was it started to warm up too, which was welcomed with great joy!! The next hour or so we just hung around at the summit, taking photos with the group and enjoying the view.

Sunday 7.30am
Begin the walk back down to Base camp for breakfast and then pack the tent up before starting the trek back to the Ranger station. It was also time to use the drop loo's which we had been avoiding up until now.

Sunday 9.30am
We're off. Again we walked with Karweng and again we set a blistering pace. It took us 1.5 hours to get down. The guide gave up trying to keep up with us. Not sure why it was taking the rest of the group so long as some of them were paying porters to carry their bags. Although if you factor in the stride length difference it does make a little more sense.

Sunday 12.30pm
Depart the Ranger station. This time, Jodi and Karweng joined Brenden on top of the Jeepney for the trip down. About 1/2 hour into the trip we stop for lunch. The food was amazing. It was so simple, just a heap of steamed vegetable with some purple rice and chicken soup but it was delicious. Especially the vegies, they were so fresh. There was also a block of showers and toilets there too so everyone had a shower after lunch.

Sunday 3pm
Back in the Jeepney. Next stop - briefing area again. We had orgnised to pick up some certificates to say that we'd done the climb. The rest of the group went up to the office to collect the certificates and some more souveniers. Although Karweng and the both of us went on our own misson to get some beer before jumping back in the Jeepney to head back to Baguio.

Sunday 6.30pm
Finally arrive back in Baguio. The Jeepney was starting to be a little bit too much to bare. Brenden finally had phone reception so he made the call to Ashley to wish him a happy b'day. Was really good to catch up with him even though it was pretty brief. We smashed down some dinner at KFC and then waited for the bus to depart.

Sunday 8.30pm
On the bus heading for Manila. Thank god - we were both exhausted. We did sleep for a bit on the bus which was great and we weren't freezing cold either, which was even better.

Monday 3am
Arrive back at the apartment. A quick shower and off to bed. Jodi needed to be up at 5.30am to be at school by 7. Brenden had to be ready by 7.15am for the shuttle to work. So looking forward to sleep, whenever that finally happens.

So when you work it out, from the time we left the apartment to when we got back, excluding the 5.5 hours of disjointed sleep on the mountain, we were in transit for 46 hours for a 1.5 hour sunrise. Wow! It was so worth it though. Thanks to everyone who helped organise it and for inviting us along. Was definately something we're glad we did.