( Overview
/ 2023 more travel adventures
Friday 10th March
Early start as we travelled from Port Barton to Sabang today. We leave just before 8am for the bus terminal (a five minute walk) and arrive at the terminal where it is hectic as people are clamouring to get on small buses / mini vans. We finally locate ours and this time squeeze into the back. Our driver is manic so it’s just as well we’re not up front this time. I focus on breathing and looking out the window, scenery is lovely, jungle meets sea most of the way. We have to get the bus to drop us at a place called Salvation (ironic as I’m way past that), this turns out to be another mini bus stop / cafe. We get talking to another British couple who are going back the way we’ve come, so inevitably swap tips on hotels and restaurants. We wait for 2 hours for our next bus, finally it arrives and we leave our fellow travellers still waiting for for theirs. The bus from Salvation takes us to Sabang. We finally arrive around 1pm, so the whole journey of 155km has taken us five hours! We strap on our backpacks and walk to the wharf where we find the ticket office for the underwater river way and caves which we’ve come here to see. We’ve been advised that the best time to go is first thing in the morning so our plan for now is to register (you need to show ID etc.,). We also go and book transport from Sabang to Puerto Princesa and finally we walk along the beach to find our hotel. J booked this one as a surprise, an early birthday treat., which is lovely.. We’re staying on the beach at the nicest hotel in Sabang (there aren’t many!), Dulyaon Mountain & Beach Resort. We check in, dump bags and then it’s back out to walk the entire beach, which amazingly, we have entirely to ourselves. There is very little in this bay, other than a few massage huts, a camp site and our hotel which doesn’t seem packed but it’s only mid afternoon. We decide to head for a massage around 5 which is on the beach and it’s the best we’ve had. Float back to the hotel, dinner is fresh tuna with vegetables, a bit of rice, which seems the only food I’m up for and then back to enjoy listening to the sound of the waves hitting the beach.
Saturday 11th March
The caves and river-ways are said to be 8km long, although only 4.3k of which is navigable, it’s the longest underground navigable river in the world and it’s a UNESCO site which was discovered in 1971. It’s said to be over 25 million years old, with a 23 million year old fossilised dinosaur, a predecessor to the Dugone (sea cow) which is still in place (sadly we couldn’t go that far into the caves to see it). We get up nice and early, are first to breakfast and despite ordering we sit there for about 30 minutes and it doesn’t arrive, so without making a fuss (unusual for me I know!) we get up and leave, weirdly one of the local dogs had already attached himself to me as soon as we’d got to breakfast (he must of had foresight). We leave and head down the beach, dog follows and then shortly after that our waiter comes running after us with our breakfast boxed and ready to go! Imagine trying to eat Eggs Benedict out of a box, without cutlery, well exactly, you can’t! Let’s just say the dog had a good breakfast when we reached the wharf. We met an English couple who were also waiting for the office to open. You have to register, fill in numerous forms, pay fees, taxes and god knows what else. Once we’d sorted all of that, the four of us climb into our boat and we head out to sea just after 8. We round several bays and then we head back to shore to a bay, nothing to indicate any caves, just a lovely beach. We land on the beach and then it’s a short walk through the jungle, before we’re met and given an audio device and hard hat, we then climb into another smaller boat. A guide then paddled us into the cave, it was incredible, within the cave there was one part that was as high as St Paul’s Cathedral, the sheer scale of it was incredible. Bats were everywhere, you just have to make sure you don’t open your mouth as you look up. The only light we have with us is our guides headlight so he points out all the landmarks within the cave which appears largely untouched. We navigate through about half of the waterways in total silence and near dark, it was somehow extremely moving, I can’t quite explain it. Perhaps being under a mountain travelling a waterway that hasn’t been touched for millions of years and just thinking about how brief our lives are by comparison and how amazing it is to experience these hidden wonders of the world. Anyway sentimentality aside, we paddle back into the light and head back in the reverse order we came by and find ourselves back at our hotel and on the beach by 10.30. We head into the sea for a swim, dry out on land and then it’s time to pack up and we’re off again….
We’re collected by another mini van bus which is also stacked to the rafters with passengers, mainly locals. We’re wedged into the back with fellow French-Canadian travellers and swap travel stories and tips once more, they’re going the way we’ve just come so they are dropped back at Salvation. We continue onto Puerto Princesa and arrive into PP around 4.30. We’ve booked into a really nice hotel close to the Airport. I don’t feel up to much and certainly don’t want to eat anything so we head over to a night market to look around, I’m in desperate need of sleep as we have another early start tomorrow.
Early start as we travelled from Port Barton to Sabang today. We leave just before 8am for the bus terminal (a five minute walk) and arrive at the terminal where it is hectic as people are clamouring to get on small buses / mini vans. We finally locate ours and this time squeeze into the back. Our driver is manic so it’s just as well we’re not up front this time. I focus on breathing and looking out the window, scenery is lovely, jungle meets sea most of the way. We have to get the bus to drop us at a place called Salvation (ironic as I’m way past that), this turns out to be another mini bus stop / cafe. We get talking to another British couple who are going back the way we’ve come, so inevitably swap tips on hotels and restaurants. We wait for 2 hours for our next bus, finally it arrives and we leave our fellow travellers still waiting for for theirs. The bus from Salvation takes us to Sabang. We finally arrive around 1pm, so the whole journey of 155km has taken us five hours! We strap on our backpacks and walk to the wharf where we find the ticket office for the underwater river way and caves which we’ve come here to see. We’ve been advised that the best time to go is first thing in the morning so our plan for now is to register (you need to show ID etc.,). We also go and book transport from Sabang to Puerto Princesa and finally we walk along the beach to find our hotel. J booked this one as a surprise, an early birthday treat., which is lovely.. We’re staying on the beach at the nicest hotel in Sabang (there aren’t many!), Dulyaon Mountain & Beach Resort. We check in, dump bags and then it’s back out to walk the entire beach, which amazingly, we have entirely to ourselves. There is very little in this bay, other than a few massage huts, a camp site and our hotel which doesn’t seem packed but it’s only mid afternoon. We decide to head for a massage around 5 which is on the beach and it’s the best we’ve had. Float back to the hotel, dinner is fresh tuna with vegetables, a bit of rice, which seems the only food I’m up for and then back to enjoy listening to the sound of the waves hitting the beach.
Saturday 11th March
The caves and river-ways are said to be 8km long, although only 4.3k of which is navigable, it’s the longest underground navigable river in the world and it’s a UNESCO site which was discovered in 1971. It’s said to be over 25 million years old, with a 23 million year old fossilised dinosaur, a predecessor to the Dugone (sea cow) which is still in place (sadly we couldn’t go that far into the caves to see it). We get up nice and early, are first to breakfast and despite ordering we sit there for about 30 minutes and it doesn’t arrive, so without making a fuss (unusual for me I know!) we get up and leave, weirdly one of the local dogs had already attached himself to me as soon as we’d got to breakfast (he must of had foresight). We leave and head down the beach, dog follows and then shortly after that our waiter comes running after us with our breakfast boxed and ready to go! Imagine trying to eat Eggs Benedict out of a box, without cutlery, well exactly, you can’t! Let’s just say the dog had a good breakfast when we reached the wharf. We met an English couple who were also waiting for the office to open. You have to register, fill in numerous forms, pay fees, taxes and god knows what else. Once we’d sorted all of that, the four of us climb into our boat and we head out to sea just after 8. We round several bays and then we head back to shore to a bay, nothing to indicate any caves, just a lovely beach. We land on the beach and then it’s a short walk through the jungle, before we’re met and given an audio device and hard hat, we then climb into another smaller boat. A guide then paddled us into the cave, it was incredible, within the cave there was one part that was as high as St Paul’s Cathedral, the sheer scale of it was incredible. Bats were everywhere, you just have to make sure you don’t open your mouth as you look up. The only light we have with us is our guides headlight so he points out all the landmarks within the cave which appears largely untouched. We navigate through about half of the waterways in total silence and near dark, it was somehow extremely moving, I can’t quite explain it. Perhaps being under a mountain travelling a waterway that hasn’t been touched for millions of years and just thinking about how brief our lives are by comparison and how amazing it is to experience these hidden wonders of the world. Anyway sentimentality aside, we paddle back into the light and head back in the reverse order we came by and find ourselves back at our hotel and on the beach by 10.30. We head into the sea for a swim, dry out on land and then it’s time to pack up and we’re off again….
We’re collected by another mini van bus which is also stacked to the rafters with passengers, mainly locals. We’re wedged into the back with fellow French-Canadian travellers and swap travel stories and tips once more, they’re going the way we’ve just come so they are dropped back at Salvation. We continue onto Puerto Princesa and arrive into PP around 4.30. We’ve booked into a really nice hotel close to the Airport. I don’t feel up to much and certainly don’t want to eat anything so we head over to a night market to look around, I’m in desperate need of sleep as we have another early start tomorrow.
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