Mt. Sembrano is located in Pililia, Rizal. It stands at 745 MASL with a difficulty scale of 3/9 as per Pinoy Mountaineer site.
How to go there?
Ride a bus bound to Tanay and alight at Tanay Public Market. From there, we rode another jeep bound to Malaya.
I may say that I was a bit unprepared for the event. I made a decision the night before the trek and clumsy pack whatever I thought I needed then go. I will be joining the Travel Compass PH as there was an invite.
During our travel, the sky has blessed us with rain. I was a bit concerned of how trail looks like since it was continuously raining at that time.
After arriving at the barangay hall, we registered, paid the registration fees, and repacked our things because of the possible heavy rain coming while we are at the mountain.
We started the trek by introducing ourselves to the group and by doing some stretching!
We did the first half of the trail for an hour. The trail after the resting place is a bit steeper and quite muddy.
The last leg heading to the campsite is bald and muddy. This part of the trail reminds me of the leg going to the summit of Mt. Tagapo. (For the story, follow this link: https://joeyinwanderland.wordpress.com/2014/06/29/mttagapo/ )
The sky remains to be dark and the fog remains to cover the whole forest. Though the weather may have hidden the view at the campsite, the over growth of the grass have also obstruct the view.
Because of the situation and the danger the fog may cause, we have decided not to attempt to summit anymore.
In search for the summit
Instead, we head back to the campsite and took our lunch.
While we are heading back to the same trail, in a few seconds, the fog was pushed and we had a glimpse of the view at the place where we are standing!
I got excited and took out my phone to take a picture of it.
Thanks Markie for this shot!
I must admit that going down is a lot harder than going up. The agony of going down is always present, as the trail is steep and muddy, it took us longer time to go down.
When we reached Manggahan, the rest of them went down to see the falls and wash up. I preferred to look after their bags and have my time to reflect. Thanks Markie for the photos!
‘
Note: There is a minimal fee for those who will go to the falls.
Our day was wrapped by having a great dinner at Balaw-Balaw located in Angono, Rizal. If you have the guts to eat fresh wood worms, cow balls, and some vegetarian worms, you can find it here.
At that time those weren’t my cravings, haha!
The restaurant wasn’t just the typical restaurant that you know. It also hand different arts, painting and paper mache.
Thanks Josh of Travel Compass PH for this wonderful experience!
Check their page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/travelcompass.ph/
Add/Follow me:
FB: http://www.facebook.com/theadventourist1
IG: joeyinwanderland
Photo Credits: Markie Aungon and Socs Melic
Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment, like or follow this article. Thank you!
Joey in Wanderland 