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Just Hanging Around

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They all talked about how this was just a small challenge, something only for newbies and hardly anything to get nervous over as by the time one had barely begun it would soon be finished. It was just some twenty meters down and less than half the distance one had to rappel in Antequera, they assured me. But here I was, walking to and fro across the bailey bridge of Makapiko River, trying to come up with enough nerve to get it up and done with. I finally understood the fear that gripped challengers in the reality TV contests that I had always watched in the comfort of the living room.

To think that just hours earlier I was perfectly safe in Tagbilaran, waiting for Liza and Mitzi in the office of the Bohol Alliance of Non-Government Organizations (BANGON), who were to take us that day to their Ecological- Cultural Tourism Focus Community Assistance (FOCAS) 2 project site in Batuan. Aided by the Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program, the project is implemented by BANGON with the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation.

The day began with an overcast sky that foretold rain and, though worried, Liza and I climbed into the back of the pick-up that we were to ride on the way to Makapiko River in Batuan. Together with us for the ride, along with the BANGON staff, were Atty. Kins Aparece of the Young People for Development and Mr. Bernard Agawin of GTZ, the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit or the German Technical Development Cooperation, and his son Andre.

For much of the trip, all that Liza and I had to contend with was the rain that splattered our faces with raindrops that felt very much like the pricking of pins and for which I had to borrow a baseball cap and Mitzi’s shawl for protection. By the time we got to Loay, we were completely drenched from head to foot. A couple of times, too, the road had us hurtling in the back of the pick-up, which was just as well, since, for the length of the ride, we had been singing mostly rock and roll songs. I was thinking that this was going to be an unforgettable trip and nothing more could add to the experience. But then we got to the Loboc-Bilar manmade forest.

With no roof to hide the open sky, we only had to look up to see the branches of the tall mahogany trees almost meet halfway in the forest canopy where, below, the road parted the forest. With no walls to block the wind, we were awash in the cool forest breeze that surrounded us. With the leaves of the trees to soften the rain, the drops that fell on our faces were as gentle as dew. If only for those
moments, the trip was worth all that we had gone through.

By the time we got to the Balay sa Humay, a rice boutique along the highway that features the many varieties of rice that are farmed in the town of Batuan, we felt like we had already gone on an uncommon adventure and that nothing more could add to the experience. I knew that we were still going rappelling and river tubing but I had no knowledge of what to expect. Fast forward to Makapiko Bridge.

So there I was, on the bridge, the very picture of worry and a source of amusement for almost everyone else. A few minutes later, I would have the resolve to sit on the ledge and prepare for my turn. They gave me instructions but I couldn’t hear a word they said and my resolve quickly vanished with a look at the rocks below. It took me a few more minutes, while others took their turn, before I returned to the
ledge and finally just did it.

First, they told me to hold on to the side of the bridge, then to make like I was going to sit down, and then to hold the rope, my left hand to guide and my right hand to control my descent. I was hanging on by a rope strung to the side of a bailey bridge and stuck to a harness around my waist and it was my first time to rappel. For all the reassurances that they were giving me about the equipment, like the fact that it could carry one ton easy, and the precautions taken for our safety, all I could think about was my heart racing and the fear of the rope breaking and of falling headfirst, straight into the rocks and the earth below. With all the strength I could muster, I held on to the rope with both hands, belaying myself slowly only when it occurred to me that I had to go down as Liza was up on the bridge and eager to take her turn.

Now, in hindsight and after all the nervousness has subsided, it all seems embarrassing. In those moments that I was mid-air, however, I could only think about the reality that the harness and a single rope barely half an inch in diameter was the only security that I had between life and death. But, with this, also came the realization that for all my fears, they would profit me nothing. There was nothing else that I could do but hang on.

And then, as the others left for the river tubing, I went for a second turn.

Tags: adventure, batuan, bohol, eco-adventure tourism, makapiko, rapelling