It’s rare that I make the right decision. But two days ago, it happened. It was when I rode my bike north out of Naval to explore that part of the island. I reached a point where I had to decide whether to keep going in a loop and go in a circle back to Naval going across the middle of the island or to turn around and return the same way I had come. I decided to go back the same way and leave the center island road for another day. It turns out that that was a great decision. I know this because yesterday, I rode across the center of the island on that road, and it was extremely steep and difficult. Had I attempted it after my long day going around the north end of the island, I would have died. I don’t think, in any event, that I could have made it.

I set off from Naval relatively early. It wasn’t at the crack of dawn or anything like that, but I think it was about 8:30. It was easy to find the road leading out of Naval to the east across the center of the island. I decided not to have breakfast in Naval because I was eager to hit the road. I didn’t want more delays. I assumed the town on the other side of that road would be a substantial one and I could get somethiing to eat there – which, as it turned out, was a mistake. I didn’t track down any food until around 3:30 in the afternoon, making for a long and hungry day.

The road started to rise upon leaving Naval and did not stop rising until I reached the top of the pass. Well, I guess I can’t call it a mountain pass. That seems too big a term for this. The island does have a spine of large mountains. They run closer to the east coast than the west coast. There are two large sections of these mountains, and my road went over the lower shoulder that connected these two sections. Technically, I don’t know if you can call a shoulder between separate mountains a pass or not.

The road never stopped rising the entire time, which made my progress very slow and difficult. However, the rewards in terms of scenery were great. The center of the island between these mountains consisted of long sweeping valleys filled with sculpted rice terraces. Rice terraces are wonderful to experience. They feel organic and lush and tropical. They generally have been built and developed over thousands of years until they match the landscape perfectly, each terrace wall hugging the contours of the land perfectly. Rice is being planted right now and water is flooding all the terraces. There is a complex system of sluices that can be opened and closed allowing water to flow from one to the next, each terrace essentially serving as a damned lake with the overflow of water going down to the next. The water is chanelled from a natural spring or a stream far up in the mountains and is directed to the top of the terraces. Then it cascades down from level to level until the entire mountainside is flooded. One hears water flowing merrily through little channels everywhere, and it is a cheerful sound.

The rice terraces were only on the Naval side of the mountains. The eastern side appeared to be left to forest. It was also much steeper on the other side, the road having to descend an equal amount to the west side but having to do it in a much shorter distance. I always ride my brakes on these steep downhills. I don’t dare just let the bike go and soar down these long descents. The roads are far too dangerous and irregular to risk that. A single rock or pothole or even speed bump could result in disaster, as could a coconut (of which there are many on the road), a small child, a small animal, a stick, a cement block, a section of roof, a caribao, and on and on. There are so many dangers on the road that I feel it would be silly to race down at speed. As it turned out, I nearly experienced a disaster despite the care I took. I was going relatively fast at about 35km/hr when there was a sudden loud noise from the bike. Something was terribly wrong. I hit the brakes hard and stopped as quickly as I could. It took me a long time to figure out what had gone wrong. It turned out that the chain had come off the front cog wheels and gotten jammed between them and the bike frame. This put the chain so close in that it rubbed up against the knobs of the tire. It was that awful sound that I heard. As with all disasters, I could say that I was extremely lucky. None of the knobs had hooked the chain fully. Had that happened, I can’t even imagine the consequences – certainly a crash with huge damage to the bike and me. I shook my head as I figured all this out. It was one more thing I had to worry about as I rode. I’m constantly on the alert as I ride and watching out for all manner of dangers. This, despite having owned this bike for so long, is a brand new one. I believe it is because this new rear tire has very large rubber knobs that stick farther out to the side than the knobs on my other tires. Therefore, there is the risk of the chain getting caught up in them.

I don’t know that it was wise to descend the far side of the mountains and go completely around the south end of the island. Perhaps it would have been better to stay in the valleys with the rice terraces and explore the villages there. Then I could simply have coasted back down the mountains right to Naval and home. It would have been a fairly easy and pleasant day. But then I would have been left not knowing what the rest of the island looked like. So I went down the far side to the east coast and circled around the coast of the southern part of the island all the way back to Naval. That turned out to be an 80-kilometer trip. That may not sound like much, but considering the steepness of the grades, that was a big trip. I certainly got my exercise. It was clear, too, that I never could have completed it with my full touring load. The roads were far too steep, even going along the coast. I’d have had to push my bike up much of the time. As it turned out, it was a tough physical challenge to do it even without my touring load. And to make things even more difficult, storm clouds moved in and it rained on me for the last 19 kilometers from the town of Biliran (where I finally found some food) all the way to Naval.

I was a complete wreck when I got back to my hotel. I barely had the strenth to lift my bike and carry it up the stairs to my room. My legs were trembling and my arms were so weak and shaky that I had trouble taking off my clothes to take a shower. My clothing had been soaked through with sweat all day long and now rain had been added to that. I was a drowned mess.

Biliran is very similar to the island of Camiguin (not nearly as nice and interesting, I have to admit) and I have the unfortunate memory of how I rented a motorcycle on Camiguin and explored that way. It was wonderful and gave me the opportunity to go anywhere I wanted without a thought for distance or steepness of grade. On my trip around Biliran, I passed many interesting roads heading away from the main road, but there was no way I could attempt them on my bicycle. The main road was already so steep that it was at my limit. Then these side roads went off into the mountains at an even steeper grade. And even if they were flat, I doubt I’d have attempted any of them. I had to reserve my strength (and time) for just getting around the island and back to Naval. On a motorcycle, I’d have likely gone up many of these roads. I used to have the pleasure of doing that in Taiwan and I loved having my scooter for that reason – I could go absolutely anywhere without a thought for how steep the roads were, and I found many beautiful and interesting places because of that. On a bicycle, you are much more restricted. Of course, there are advantages to a bicycle, but right now I’m having trouble giving any weight to them. I’m having something of a crisis of faith when it comes to bike touring. I’m not quite sure it is the right thing to do anymore. It just feels extremely difficult and uncomfortable. I love HAVING a bicycle, of course. A bicycle is the perfect way to get out and explore where you happen to be. But using a bicycle to cover long distances… I don’t know about that anymore. I’m finding it extremely difficult and unpleasant at the moment. I have all these places in my head that I want to visit, but linking them up by bicycle seems problematic. I suppose a few days of travel by local transportation would cure me of that. It’s been so long since I’ve attempted that that I’ve forgotten how difficult and horrible that can be. The closest I got was my trip to Camiguin when I had to take local transportation from the airport in Cagayan de Oro to the island of Camiguin. That was a truly awful experience and the entire time, I kept wishing I had a bicycle. I had to fight with a taxi driver to get me from the airport to the bus station. Then I had to fight through the chaos to find a bus. The bus ride was murderous and I was close to vomiting the entire time. I had to figure out where to get dropped off and then I had to find a way to get from there to the ferry terminal. Once across on the ferry, I had to deal with hordes of guys trying to get me to take their tricycle or jeepney or whatever. I had no idea where I wanted to go and just had to take a stab at it. The trip was nightmarish, stuck in this mini-van and totally unable to see outside the window. It was a terrible experience and the whole time I contrasted it with how better it would be to travel by bicycle. So there are many sides to this isssue. I just haven’t experienced the other side for a while. I’m kind of dreading leaving Biliran. My first day, I’m going to have to retrace my route through the mountains on Leyte, and that is going to be brutal. I think I’ll be walking most of the time. But if I didn’t have my bike, I’d have to go through the nightmarish process of taking a local bus. I wouldn’t even know how to start. I don’t where the bus station is or when the buses leave or any of that stuff. Then I’d have to go through the third world horrors of showing up at the bus station and finding out that the bus won’t leave until it’s full, which could take three hours. And on and on and on.

Today, I don’t think I’m heading off on any adventures. I have to slowly break my body back into cycling, and two days of hard cycling in a row is more than enough. My body is adjusting well. My knees have held up quite well, and I don’t want to risk injuring myself. I want to get back in some kind of shape gradually. A day off before tackling the mountains south of here wouldn’t be a bad idea. I assume I’ll be heading for the town of Ormoc. That’s about 90 kilometers away. I’m really not sure if I can do that in one day. It depends on the terrain that the road follows. From Ormoc, I have decisions to make. I was thinking about cycling down through southern Leyte and then taking a boat to Bohol or to Surigao.

 

 

Tags: bike, bike touring, Biliran Trip, load, Philippines Bike Trip 2013