Monday 13th Feb

Well the night bus from Manila to Legazpi was certainly interesting, 467 k miles and I think I felt every bump in the road 😆 it certainly wasn’t like sleeping on a flat bed on a flight!! No champers or eye masks… Plus it was freezing cold, we were wearing our jumpers and coats, the air con was one phenomenal and don’t get me started on the toilet… you don’t want to go there trust me. Throw in a few screaming kids and you have the picture of my ideal night!! Anyway somehow we made it through the night. Arrived at the bus terminal and caught a tuk tuk to a hotel (£1).

Rather than sloping off into bed this afternoon we foolishly booked a driver to take us on a tour (a guy called Bhem), we wanted to get to the volcano, Mt Mayon. Anyway, after getting him down on the price he came and picked us up at 1.30. We visited Busay Falls, a fairly unexciting waterfall. Then onto Sky View, the last point you can access Mt Mayon volcano, the Philippines most active volcano. It has a perfect cone shape top. You can only go within 6km of the summit. It last erupted in 2014 (I think), climbers can no longer climb to the summit. It was ok but sadly a very grey and misty afternoon, ironically we got a better shot of it from the car on the way back.

Returned to Legazpi but I’m really not yet that in love with the place plus I’d wasted a huge amount of time booking a quad biking trip to the base of the volcano so we’re thinking of moving on tomorrow to a place on the coast called Donsol where you can see the whalesharks (not guaranteed obviously). After more to’ing and fro’ing about the quad biking trip with the operator, we pop out for food at the Small Talk Cafe just down the street, despite rave reviews we find it very average. We find ourselves in bed by nine, after virtually no sleep the night before c/o the night bus, I’m amazed we lasted this long, mind you I have been very grumpy today 😀