I woke up in the warm suffocating air, and the sound of people scrambling around my bunk bed. I saw the familiar lights of the industrial complexes lining the Bay of Batangas. We're getting closer to home!
It's deceiving, though. As you appear to get closer to the port, the longer it seems to take to reach it. It probably took us more than half an hour to dock, and another thirty minutes to disembark.
We said farewell to Adrian and Kerwin, who were riding different buses from ours. I couldn't sleep on the bus, so I punished myself by watching three repeats of Pagpag on the TV. We got back to QC by the time the movie was starting again. Whew!
5AM. Warm bath. Hot, home-cooked meal. My soft bed. I was home at last! I dozed off after talking to Cece. It was almost noon when I woke up.
No climb is truly complete unless you're through with all the cleaning after. Everything had to be cleaned: my pack, climbing gear, drybags, and most of all, my shoes and clothes. Despite the strong urge to put off this chore, the prospect of my bedroom stinking more than usual was a powerful motivator not to procrastinate.
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| Doing the much-needed laundry |
If you put pants and socks worn for almost a week in wet and muddy conditions into the washing machine, expect to spend almost half a day and at least three wash cycles to get most of the mud and dirt out. I pre-rinsed these before putting the detergent, and still the tub looked like a big vat of chocolate drink afterwards.
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| Chocolate, anyone? |
On the positive, the wash load was not a lot because I used up the bare minimum in clothing . I gave (and lost some) of my clothes in Romblon. It was already dark outside when I finished hanging everything in our drying area.
And so ends my trip. There are still a few things left to be done before we officially close this expedition. A lot of questions will have to be answered in the coming days, like "when will the next trip happen?", or "who will truly complete this trail connection?", among others. But finding the answers to these will have to wait. Tomorrow, we set out on our regular lives. For now, we need to catch up on sleep.
And so ends my trip. There are still a few things left to be done before we officially close this expedition. A lot of questions will have to be answered in the coming days, like "when will the next trip happen?", or "who will truly complete this trail connection?", among others. But finding the answers to these will have to wait. Tomorrow, we set out on our regular lives. For now, we need to catch up on sleep.
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