Road Trip to Balagbag Falls Real Quezon

Summer is almost over and I thought that I haven't been to any beach this summer so I decided to go to a nearest beach around Metro Manila. I ask my wife to come along but she couldn’t come so I invited some of my friends. Most of them are not available because it’s so sudden and others are undecided. I told them that it will be a road trip on a motorbike and I will go on anyway even if they can’t. Three finally commit, so it’s finally "GAME ON!"

The initial plan was Batangas but since we are on motor bike we decide to go to Infanta to enjoy the zigzag road of Liabac. But then again we still want to enjoy the beach so we lessen our travel time and stay at Balagbag Falls, Real Quezon.

Balagbag Falls is a three cascading falls with a beach just a few meters on its downstream. It’s a better choice; we can swim to both beach and falls. This is not my first time at Balagbag, actually I can't remember how many times I've been there.

We leave Pasig about 4:30am and we use the route of Angono-Morong instead of Antipolo. We drive none stop until we reached the intersection of Siniloan-Famy-Real-Infanta Road. We stopped at 7-11 to grab some stuff. After a few minutes of rest we’re back on the road.

While traversing the zigzag road, we can’t help to enjoy ourselves with the beautiful view of the Siera Madre Mountain Range. Now I remember, this is the reason why I love to ride in the provinces. Fresh morning air touching your face with the scent of wet grass and vegetations, simple provincial houses and wood carving on the side of the road for sale, water strait from mountain as a water source of the locals and many things that we can’t see every day in the Metro Manila . In one spot of the road we stop to take some pictures and enjoy the view.

That's me on black jacket

After a few minutes we reached Real Fish port. Here we bought our lunch, squid and some hard skin fish, I forgot it’s called. We will not stay in a resort or a hotel so we don’t have any accommodation or any access to cookware and utensils. We plan to camp on a beach just a few meters away from the falls and grill the fishes on open fire with an aluminum foil wrap on it which we bought in 7/11 earlier.

Around 9:30am we arrived at the Balagbag Falls, park our bikes fixed our bags and gears, paid Php 20 for the entrance and head straight to the falls.

This is Jon trying to attempt a jump that never happened

This is the reason why sometimes I hate my DSLR. Everyone enjoys dipping in the water but I can’t just leave my camera anywhere without the fear of losing or damaging it.

After some dipping and swimming for a few minutes we head to the beach to set our camp and lunch. While setting up the tent, I realize something is wrong; I only bring one pole of the tent. I need two to make it stand. I have to improvise to utilize my tent. Good thing I have a rope in my bike compartment and used it to hang the apex of the tent to a tree and made an improvised long peg, made from bamboo, to secure the base of the tent.

On preparing the food, we didn’t have problem in setting fire, our problem is, the supposed aluminum foil that I bought earlier is not aluminum after all, it’s plastic. I mistakenly pick up the wrong item geeez! Again I have to improvise. The first idea is to wrap it in banana leaves but didn’t work. Next, use sticks like barbecue but we’re having trouble turning over the fish and squid. They keeps on falling to the flame. Last attempt, I remember in Discovery Channel how the hunters in the Amazon cook their catch fish in the jungle. I tried to copy it and it works.

Lunch is almost done!

After lunch we had a little siesta. I took a nap on my hamok , other under a tree. It’s a very relaxing 

afternoon but when we woke up we noticed the low tide sets in. Now we can’t swim, the rocky bottom shows up and their sharp but this won’t stop us. There are pockets of water everywhere so we just wonder around and look some marine life to play with, like little kids.

The original plan was to stay overnight at the beach. But in the afternoon rain pours very hard and my unconditioned tent doesn’t fit this kind of condition. After the rain we decided to pack our things and head back home. Our bags, clothes and other things, except camera, were wet. We left Real around 6:00pm and arrived at Pasig around 10:00pm. We were wet, cold and tired, but did we regret this trip? Not me! We are after for an adventure and adventure is what we get. Planned trip is a good thing for those who want a hassle free vacation but sometimes spontaneous trip gives us more trill and excitement. Other travelers say “it’s not about the destination… it’s about the travel.” But for me,” why not both?”

my last shot before the heavy rain...