It's 2015 and what a way to jump start the year than with a Round South Ride with the pack! Of course, we had a stopover in mind which was Mainit Springs , Malabuyoc. Our route? From our kick off point at Caltex Mango, we traveled a few hundred kilometers to reach our destination at Mainit Hot Springs and left to follow the road via Oslob and back to the city to complete the round south experience.
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| road pic! |
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| stopover for a quick breakfast at Barili |
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| this was our route for our round south ride |
We knew that it was going to be a loooong ride so we started early. At 6:00 AM (call time was supposed to be 5:30 AM o_O) , we left early from Caltex Mango just when the sun just showed itself from the sky. We made sure that all our motorbikes would have enough gas or much better, a full tank for the ride so we had a few stopovers at gas stations and at Barili we had to stop for a 15-minute break for those who wanted to eat breakfast and gather what money we have to buy food for our trip. At exactly 11:00 AM , we arrived at our destination at Mainit Springs.
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| Mainit Springs Entrance |
You would think that the place is empty because when we arrived, no one was staying in the cottages but when you would go to the spring, all the people are already soaked in the pools.
Entrance fee is Php20.00 per head and you have to pay for parking as well. Php10.00 for motorcycles and Php20.00 for cars and since we were like almost 20 in total, that's gotta be a lot of pay just from our group alone.
We noticed that most of the visitors do not rent the cottages as the rates were at Php200 for 3 hours and some would just go to the springs and then leave when they're done. Since we were not from the place, we opted to get ourselves settled but not with the cottages 'coz they actually have tables that we can rent. The long ones were Php50.00 and the smaller ones were Php40.00 so we chose to get one of each.
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| the pack taking a selfie while settling in our tables |
Everyone decided not to go jumping right into the hot springs first since we were all exhausted from the long ride. We decided to eat whatever food we brought in and share it to everyone since most of us were on a tight budget and wait for the rest of our food to arrive (from the money that we have gathered from Barili earlier). When most of us were filled and our energies raised, it was off to the springs for us!
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| 42.6 C pool. Hot! Hot! Hot! |
We were given a little bit of briefing when we arrived just so we know what we were gonna be experiencing. Mainit Hot Springs is actually a river flowing from the mountain top and there were several points that the water's temperature is high. From those points, they have created a mini pool so the heat will just be in one area. There were 3 pools all in all having temperatures of 35.8 C , 36.1 C and 42.6 C. For the hottest pool, we were warned not to stay longer than 10 minutes since they said the water had a mix of sulfur in it or something like that, with our without any history of high-blood, your blood pressure would really go up.
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| 36.1 C at the left and 35.8 C at the right and the cold flowing river in-between. |
After we changed into our shorts and tshirts we went down to their river. At first, we were wondering where the hotspring was because the first touch of the river, the water was really cold. Then we saw the pool and the moment we settled ourselves in, it was heaven. Just the right amount of heat. We stayed at the 35.8 C pool since the two other pools were a bit crowded. Aside from the pools, there was a hidden area where the flowing water came from and the water there was like cold as ice but it was beautiful because it was hidden from view and there were rock formations that surrounded the waters.
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| chillin' with the warm spring |
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| only a few dared to soak their body on the hottest pool! |
We enjoyed ourselves with the warmth and the coldness of the waters and before leaving, we didn't want to miss out on the chance of trying out the hottest pool and well , all we could say is that 10 minutes is definitely too long! The water was very hot and you had to let your body be used to the heat before you can really submerge yourself in the water.
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| Last Pic before leaving |
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| GO VFRP! |
At around 3pm, we were all packed and ready to go because there was still a long way ahead before we can arrive back to the comfort of our homes. No matter how fast our motorcycles were running , we couldn't stop night time from falling while on the road and we were still at Oslob at that time (that's still a long way to go before reaching the city) but no matter how exhausted we are, we had to make it back and it was like around 8pm that we separated from each other to go home.
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| picture taking at Santander |
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| motor pic at Santander |
From the fun, excitement , relaxing spring experience to the exhaustion, tight budgeting, flat tires, body cramps, not to mention the ghost-issue after the rides, this first ride of the year was definitely an experience worth remembering for the pack!
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| the ever-so-trending Ghost pic. Look closer at the right hand side just near the last pole. |
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