21 days and 5 Philippine islands in 1 ride.
The Ultimate Philippine Loop that no commercial tour company wishes to do
A road map by: Tom Stenshavn
The rain season is just over, and the weather was great, but suddenly there was breaking news on TV and all over the internet. It is today the 15th of November, and we are riding out in the morning on the 17th….
I was on the live weather forecast the whole nights, then also the day after on the 16th, and the storm just came closer and closer and was to hit us right in the face from the south where we were heading and then north after that. The storm was predicted to leave Manila on the 17th in the evening around 11 PM, so we had noe other choice than to stay an extra night in Manila and wait it out…. THen start early morning on the 18th and ride 2 days in one ride, the whole 400 KM to Naga City in one day.
Luckily we stayed, as we could see some damaged roads on our journey southbound, and we also needed to skip all the sights on the tour to reach our target, so a transport-start on our journey on trafficy roads with a lot of potholes and cracked concrete. But we made it through and reached our destination at the Summit Hotel in Naga at 4:30 PM in the afternoon.
Now we are back on track, and then we had an original plan to go from Naga to the Island of Masbate, and from there take a ferry to the north side of Cebu. That also sudddenly wasn`t possible, as the ferry from Pio Duran was closed down, and the ferry now went from Pilar Port further south. Would be doable, but then also the ferry from Masbate to Bogo, Cebu was only once a week and of course not the day after tomorrow. We were not taking any chances of finding another not-advertised ferry from the small island of Masbate, so i needed to find a solution.
After talking to locals, calling around and using some contacts, i found a ferry from Matnog to Maya, Cebu and that was perfect. It was Monday and this ferry left Matnog on Wednesday at midnight, so we made two nice short riding days to Matnog from Naga, riding in the beutiful ocean side mountains to Legazpi, visiting the Mayon Volcano and much more, and overnight in Legazpi.
After a great evening in Legazpi with checking out the local life and a good night sleep, we had a very short ride to Matnog and was expected to be there around 1 PM for lunch. We could not sit and wait for 11 hours for the ferry to leave, so we checked in to a hotel i used earlier in April at Casa Tente to relax, swim in the pool and sleep a few hours before the long ferry of 12 hours to Cebu, leaving at midnight.
We were at the ferry port at 1 PM, and registered the bikes, and the ticket booth for the Lite ferry to Cebu opened at 2 PM, so i went back to buy tickets. Luckily i was there at 2 PM, because at 3 PM, the tickets were all sold out. It`s a lot of paperwork to get ferry tickets, and i used around 2 hours for it all. First register the bikes and riders/passengers, then 1 km back to the ticket office to buy tickets, and then 1 km back again to pay port fees, coast guard registration, and some other unknkow small fees in a total of 6 booths before we were done. Around one kilo of paper for 6 bikes was our key to get to Cebu.
The ferry overnight was a total of 12 hours, and we had bunk beds in a huge airconditioned room. It was quite OK, and not uncomfortable at all, and kind of cool to sleep so many in teh same room. But it was freezing cold in there, so luckily i had my riding jacket with me. I noticed the aircondition was at 18 degrees, and normally we put that on 25.
12 hours went fast, and we get our beuty sleep, some easy instand nudels and coffee to breakfast, and arrived around lunchtime in Maya, Cebu. Only 1 hour ride to our resort, where we could again relax and swim in the pool or ocean.
Yeah, one more thing… before we arrived, the ferry staff had a christmas concert for us. Pretty cool!
The beer was cold, the pool and ocean was near and we all enjoyed the La Mer Resort in Maya, Cebu so much that none of us remembered to take any photos.
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