An adventure on an Adventure! (Part 1)

[doglegdon]

Briefly:-

1) First round trip distance 983kms, Sat 11th Oct 0700hrs-Mon 13th Oct 1030hrs. Manila-Baguio City-Bontoc-Banaue Rice Terraces and back.



2) Trip home (including wrong ways!) 891kms, Tues 14th Oct 1130hrs- Thurs 16th Oct 1200hrs. Manila-Batangas Port (Luzon island)-Ferry-Calapan (Mindoro island)-Puerta Gallera (wrong turning!)-Roxas (Mindoro island)- Ferry- Caticlan (Panay island)-Dumangas Port (Panay island)-Ferry- Bacalod City (Negros island)- San Carlos City-Dumaguete City (Negros island).




Actually, the whole point of this ‘little’ escapade was to put on enough klicks on the new bike, to get the 1000km service done in the Manila dealers, before leaving for home. (Thereby, saving a mechanic having to fly down to where I live in central Philippines, at my expense, I know, typically Aberdonian, okay enough already!)
Even though my wife wasn’t willing to join me on this ‘jaunt’, (which turned out to be quite lucky I think), she also expressed, in no uncertain terms, that she believed that I was a completely witless moron who was just asking for trouble etc etc!
Thus, with her usual, subtle observations still ringing in my ears, “Bye @rsehole, enjoy yourself and don’t bother calling me if you break down”, I boarded the morning Philippines Airlines flight from Dumaguete to Manila, blissfully ignorant of the trials and tribulations that would confront me over the next week!



Arriving into the “Big Smoke” around 10:30 am, impatiently waiting in a taxi (whose airconditioning had decided to give up the ghost, almost as soon as I had entered it), I was immediately confronted with the traffic gridlock, which is Manila.
Getting to the dealer, Access Plus, around 12 noon, I handed over the G-2 throttle cam and the Stiebel Nautilus to be fitted asap. “When do you need the bike then?”, asked the maintenance superviser, “Tomorrow morning, please” I replied. After he stopped laughing and picked himself up off the floor, the immortal words “Yea right sir!”, were the only things offered. Looking around I could see why too, there were more Ducati’s in pieces sitting around, than after a first qualifying lap at a WSB championship round . “With a lot of luck, maybe tomorrow night sir, we’ll just text you” and with that I left the showroom, fairly despondent.
Stumbling into a local biker hostelry, the Handlebar, in Makati the CBD of Manila, a friend of mine from home, introduced me to the president of the Mad Dog's MC. Commenting on the fact I hoped to be leaving on my trip by early Saturday morning, he invited me to ride with them out of Manila up the North Luzon Expressway, so at least I could start out in the right direction!
Having 'quaffed a few ales', I stumbled out of the hostelry elated, the night was young, too many glittering lights for an old country boy like me to ignore, not to mention, way, way too much to drink and the prospect of:-



Waking up the next afternoon, I had already received a text from the dealer, “Come at 5:30pm please, all will be revealed”. And it was:-



Deciding discretion being the better part of valour, I had an easy night ahead of the journey. Got up at 5:30 the next morning, packed the bike and headed off to meet the Mad Dogs MC at a Shell station on the main circular road, EDSA. Despite looking distinctly out of place amongst the Harley lads, I was given a warm welcome, but told to stay at the back, so as not to embarass them! (Who? Moi?)



Well, off we set in formation at 7:00am, through packed Manila traffic, albeit a Saturday morning, at speeds a fraction under 120kph. "They trying to lose me, the b@stards!", was my first thought, but no, this is what was normal apparently. (I didn't even know, Harleys could do that sort of speed and not blow something up.) Out of Manila and onto the North Luzon Expressway, for about 20kms, as we pulled into a service area to meet up with a few of their lads living on the north side, my heart sank. All was not well with the KTM, one of the Akro's was not roaring as usual and there was a strange metallic tinkle from the front. Parking the bike, I stepped round the front and all was revealed.......
One of the retaining nuts on the front exhaust manifold retaining ring had come loose and exited stage left somewhere down the expressway. The front pipe had come loose and moved despite the other nut still hanging in there (just). Letting the bike cool down abit, I tried to push the exhaust back and reset the retaining ring, no go. The Mad Dogs MC members, stood quietly by, sadly shaking their heads, I'm sure someone actually said "Should have bought a Harley mate!".
A frantic text message and a call to the owner of the dealership, resulted in a pair of sleepy eyed mechanics turning up an hour later and 'doing their thing'.



They replaced almost every other nut on the bike they could, with self tightening ones too, obviously having had enough of getting out of bed early on a Saturday morning to help this witless foreigner. Slipping them a huge UKP2.00 tip for their troubles, they slipped off quietly, like 'rats from a sinking ship'! Even the Mad Dogs had given up on me and left.

(To be continued.....)

[piguglyshandydrinker]

Great stuff dogleg, glad you've finally got the new bike, keep the pics coming.

Phil

[Whealie]

Loose nuts on a trip away from the wife can be tricky to explain.

[doglegdon]

Loose nuts on a trip away from the wife can be tricky to explain.

Thanks Phil, actually Chris, not many worries for her there, I've had 'the operation'! I have to fly back to Manila, then onto Bangkok tomorrow afternoon, more when I get to the office there. Sorry for the delay etc.

[Cie]

[Chad]

waiting tick followed tock etc this makes my jaunt back from glasgow with mine look like a walk in park

[doglegdon]

Sorry been busy at work the last few days,

Anyway, with everything hopefully tightened up, I set off again, alone, up the road to Baguio City, the "City of Pines", that nestles in the Cordillera mountain range in central Luzon. Choosing the Kennon Road (fondly termed the "zig-zag" road), as it twists and turns up into the mountains. Mostly nice cement surface, with tight turns along the valley bottoms till the real climb begins. One of the many US built box girder style bridges along the route.



Although they weigh about the same, compared to the AT, I definitely found the Adventure much more nimble while cornering, even when fully loaded. Stopped halfway up, to take a tourist shot of the Lion of Baguio!



Bear in mind that an average bus trip to baguio takes about 6-7 hours, a car 5-6 hours, I was pretty happy to have got up there, (not including the unscheduled stop!) in about 3 1/2 hours for the 260 odd km trip.



Due to it's much cooler climate, Baguio City is nicknamed the summer capital of the Philippines and yes those are pine trees! Like most cities, being heavily congested, traffic was murder, so I decided after lunch, I'd head off further north. The adventure was just about to begin!

The road through Benguet Province up into the mountains has spectacular views, fairly good surface and just about no straight bits either. Looking at my map the road looked like the edge of a blunt saw there were so many twisties, fun ahead I thought.



A river valley bottom village and rice terraces



There are different styles of terraces as you get further into the mountains, rice gives way to vegetables such as carrots, cabbages etc. They all need fertiliser of course, so there are plenty of chicken and pig farms along the way too, all selling the ' 100% organic waste products" in bulk. The aroma will be with me for a long time yet!






The views were terrific, but the clouds were moving in ominously!



Just before I lost the sun, for the rest of the day!



As I climbed higher, the going got much more difficult, visibility in the low cloud was down to 5-10m in places, getting short of fuel, I noticed that in most road side villages only diesel was sold. Oh cr@p, the fuel warning light has gone on! Yep, it began to rain as well, off and on, just enough to make things truely miserable. Besides fading light, landslides started to be much more common often with parts of the road having slipped down the hillside too! Odd thoughts started to jump into my head at this point like, "the wife is right, you really are a d*ckhead" or "what the hell were you thinking?"! etc etc



Getting 'slightly' desperate for fuel in the fading light, I found a small gas station in a village, the KTM took almost 18 1/2 litres, must have been close then! Around 5:30pm, I arrived at Mount Pali, the highest point in the Philippine road system, they could have been lying since it was a complete white out and started to not just rain, but throw it down too.







Wet, tired and fed up I stopped at a little roadside shop and asked if there was anywhere to stay close by. The little old lady inside looked at me like I had just dropped out of a flying saucer rather than got off a bike! No, nowhere at all, "sh*t" I thought as the rain really started to bounce off the road. It was dark, raining and I'd been on the bike for almost 8 hours, my spirits were lower than a dash-hound's wedding tackle.

Close to chucking in the whole escapade, I stopped about another 20kms up the road, at another little gas station and asked again if there any place to stay. The guy on the diesel-only pump, pointed up the road and I asked how far, "about a minute away....", never has such a wave of elation struck me so hard! If I hadn't been so knackered, I'd have removed my helmet and probably kissed the guy!

Sure enough, just round the corner, stood the "Golden Pines" pension house, this was the closest thing to heaven I have seen on earth, believe me! Walking in, doing a fair impersonation of the hunchback of Notre Dame, I asked for a room, "which one would you like?" was the reply, I was the only customer! After a shower and hanging up my gear to dry, I went down to the restaurant for supper, for less than 2 quid, I got fried rice (good for at least 3 people), Pork Adobo (pork meat simmered in soy sauce, garlic, pepper and coconut vinegar, which was at least a half kilo of meat!). These mountain folk obviously need a lot to combat the cold!

Man, bed never felt so good, ever, no fan, no aircon neccessary, just an open window and 3 blankets on the bed.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

(To be continued)

[Mutley]

Brilliant doglegdon

Trips & scenery like that should be televised. Looks great

[Chad]

fantastic don keep it coming mate funny how when the weather beats you down etc you come out the other side thinking ,,yeah did that t was cool

[Maverick]

Great read mate keep it coming nice to see a whole new different part of the world as well