text | Carla Ocampo
photography | G-third Atanque and Lester Valle
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(In this post’s Part 2, the merged cycle touring teams of KT and Lagalag Exploration— together with PHILMOFO members and a group of Ifugao mountain bikers— spent the night at Tinoc, the highest town in the province. With the Mofos heading back to Manila the morning after, KT and the Lagalag boys sweated it out by themselves in the Tinoc-Hungduan frontier. Carla, now the only girl in the team, crumbled down with exhaustion and low morale. This is the last installment of the epic loop.)
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In tears, I scanned the rugged road behind me. It had been an oppressing climb, soaring several meters from the river that cuts the Tinoc-Hungduan valley. Not too steep, I self-confessed, and frankly not quite kilometric. But with the fuming sun broiling my patience to a very thin crisp, I stopped pushing my bike, sought solace under a mere square-foot of tree shadow, and bawled like a baby.
The disruptive attack of my sobs and snorts into the brooding silence of Ifugao… just, startled me back to sanity. It was then that I saw my man, Lester— now ten meters ahead— dutifully pushing his MTB up to the gravel path’s height, where it curves to the left, disappearing behind the mountain wall. Read the rest of this entry »
Watchasay? :D