As part of human nature, people are in an unending search for confidence, genuine satisfaction, and true happiness. There are as many ways to attain these longings in life as there are innumerable boulders in a pristine river. But for us, it is when we do something so outrageous, crazy, and tough that we truly erase our own doubts, experience a great sense of relief, defeat personal demons, and feel light in the heart. Our own search culminated when we went canyoning in Biliran’s powerful Sampao River.
We got this chance of a lifetime when Sir Joni Bonifacio of Trexplore, a Samar-based outdoor outfitter, invited us to try out his canyoning adventure in the rustic province of Biliran. A master caver and an avid outdoorsman, Sir Joni has a treasure chest of thrilling adventures that will give you an adrenaline overdose.
Of course, we couldn’t say no to such an exciting adventure. Together with canyoning guide, fellow adventurer, and good friend Halourd, we started our journey by boarding a Biliran-bound ship at the port of Cebu on a warm Saturday night.
A rainy Sunday greeted us when we finally docked at the port of Naval, Biliran. Our friendly habal-habal drivers whom Sir Joni already contacted were waiting for us. We stopped by the public market to buy insal manok for lunch and ingredients for our dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast. We were going to stay in a room with a kitchen, so why not prepare sumptuous meals rather than buy pre-cooked ones?
After doing some last-minute shopping, we braved the pelting rain and endured a cold, wet 30-minute ride to Barangay Talahid.
Sir Joni booked us a nice and affordable room right within Talahid Beach Resort, an inexpensive but totally gorgeous public beach resort! It’s totally awesome! It has been ages since we’ve visited and enjoyed swimming in a clean public beach like this.
Our canyoning adventure was scheduled the next day, so we had the entire afternoon to ourselves. Sir Joni called us and asked if we wanted to do something while waiting for the morrow. Island hopping around the bay? Visiting other attractions around Biliran? Well, we would have wanted to do that, but these activities were not in our budget. Mental note: bring extra money next time.
We simply thanked him and opted for a nice stroll around Talahid Beach Resort and the adjacent Agta Beach Resort.
Since Talahid is facing west, we had a chance to witness a lovely sunset. It was also an epiphany; witnessing a beautiful sunset means something great is coming. Is that a premonition to tomorrow’s canyoning adventure?
Check out our cool and spacious room. It can accommodate six people and has its own bathroom and terrace. Oh, we did mention that there’s a kitchen there, right? We prepared our own tuna pasta, which was a perfect combo with the Hawaiian pizza that we ordered.
At 7 PM, our guide Sir Vitalie and assistant/porter Nelmie arrived for registration and signing of waivers. After inviting them for dinner, we had an adventure briefing, which is very important when undertaking extreme adventures such as this. Of course, we shared outdoor experiences over the remnants of the pizza.
Excited for the day’s adventure, we woke up earlier than usual, prepared our stuff, and ate a heavy breakfast—we got to have a lot of energy for this activity. The day turned out to be really sunny, and we could already feel its gentle warmth at 6 AM. The guides and the habal-habal drivers arrived right on time at 7 AM.
On the way to Barangay Sampao in the municipality of Almeria where our canyoning adventure will begin, we witnessed beautiful landscapes of farmlands, coconut groves, and mountains. The morning air was refreshingly cool, prompting locals to enthusiastically start a busy Monday.
Our porters rode a separate habal-habal that carries our gear. One thing that we found amazing about this habal-habal is that it was blasting music all the way to the jump-off. It turned out that the innovative driver hooked up a simple but relatively powerful sound system in his machine!
After a 20-minute ride, we arrived in Barangay Sampao where we registered in a logbook, met our burly porters, and had a last-minute briefing. After Sweetie and I finished a bottle of Coke (for luck), we started the trek towards the mighty Sampao River.
You got to work hard to enjoy good things, and that perfectly fits our situation here. To get to the starting point in the river, we need to hike up a steep mountain for an hour. Yes, we got to work out our stiff legs. Hahaha!
But that’s fine since we got to enjoy stunning views of Almeria and the Talahid Bay. In fact, we consider the warm-up trek as an integral part of the canyoning adventure!
The mountain trail follows a powerful, snaking irrigation canal that feeds fresh water from the Sampao River to the lowlands. According to our guides, the canal was dredged because in its natural state, the flow is too weak to carry a sufficient amount of water to make the soil in the lowlands suited for farming.
Look at that fresh flowing water. Yes, the irrigation system also contains natural waterfalls! No wonder why the crops in the farms in Almeria are impressively healthy; there’s an unending supply of mountain water that nourishes them.
The one-hour trek is an exciting adventure in itself. We had to do balancing acts, ascend on steep trails made of loose soil, scramble over huge boulders, and cling on rock faces to avoid falling into the river rock bed below.
Be careful because those moisture-laden rocks are slippery. One false move and into the river you go! This trail is also used by our porters as they follow guests along the river. They overlook the entire river section, to ensure that your team is safe.
In addition, the trail acts as an emergency exit. Any time there’s an emergency or if a guest decides he or she can’t handle the adventure anymore, guides and visitors can just exit the river and head to the trail.
We also passed by our designated boulder-strewn lunch area preceded by a gushing 60-foot waterfall! Yes, we’re going down there sometime during our adventure!
After successfully negotiating a harrowing “kiss the wall” section of the trail, we finally arrived at the starting point of the adventure, which also comprises a shallow lagoon where we can cool off. We paused for a few minutes to catch our breath, admire the scenery, and submit ourselves to the awe and power of Sampao River.
Gear up! We were fitted with harnesses specifically designed for canyoning, cow’s tail lifelines, PFDs, and safety helmets. Each of us was equipped with a Petzl Prana descender, a variety of the more common figure-8 descender, that allows a more controlled descent. The spurs on its body also allows an easier and safer lock-off.
We also opted to wear neoprene wetsuits because the water is incredibly chilly. The wetsuit would help us retain body heat.
Our expert guides Vitale and Joven showed us how to rappel using the Prana. The system may look complicated, but it’s actually easy to use.
And then the extreme canyoning adventure began with gleeful jump into a roiling basin!
A natural water slide! How cool is that! The flowing water and the slick rock makes it a perfect, no-injury slide that will left us laughing with delight.
No other people except us! In the depths of this forest and in the path of this rushing river, we found solitude and reconnected with Mother Nature. In just a few moments, our spirits, de-synchronized due to living an unnatural life in the city, re-established a peaceful harmony with the earth.
Whoopee! That’s a long slide! Little did we know that there were longer slides than these!
Half an hour into the river, the guides paused at a point where there is evidently a deep ravine. Check out those gorgeous but extremely slippery rocks.
Well, it turned out there really is a deep ravine. The water at the bottom of the pool is quite shallow, which makes diving in it a definite no-no.
Look at those beautiful rock walls! Do you know that it took Mother Nature millions of years to carve this canyon into the landscape?
Since diving in the shallow pool is unsafe, this part of the canyon necessitated a short rappel. Our guides promptly started setting up our first rappel of the day.
To enable a quick and reliable setup, Sir Joni and his team had drilled expansion bolts with hangers on solid rock. All the guides need to do was to simply clip a prepared anchor assembly to the hangers and secure them with locking carabiners.
The drilled-in hangers and the pre-assembled anchor system makes setting up a rappel system surprisingly easy and fast. In fact, it took Vitalie and Joven less than five minutes to set up the entire system, complete with safety checks.
Jumper down! One by one, we slowly rappelled down the canyon. We had to do it slowly carefully because the rocks are smooth and saturated with moisture. A slip can mean smashing our noses into the rock face. Our trekking sandals and boots, which were supposed to be designed for such surfaces, were of marginal help.
To ensure the team’s safety, one of our guides went down first. Then the rest of us followed. Finally, the lead guide went down to rendezvous with the rest of us.
This part here is really slippery. We actually made the mistake of rappelling all the way to the water’s surface where we got caught in the waterfall and drank a gallon of fresh water! Hehehe! Supposedly, we should have let go of our brake hand and jump a meter above the water’s surface.
After exiting the waterfall, we entered a marvelous canyon that we thought could only exist in fantasy novels. Moss-covered rock walls, a verdant forest above us, and amazing rock formations all surrounded us in this remote sanctuary.
One more thing: the water is so cold that we were actually shivering even if we were dressed in a wet suit.
Those huge boulders resemble pebbles from an aquarium only that they are a thousand times larger! That’s a totally gorgeous sculpture of Mother Nature, don’t you agree? Don’t you just want to come here and just let go of civilization, technology, and stress?
Oh, look! Another water slide! Weeeeee! We totally love it here!
Some time later, we came to another green ravine. Now, guests can opt to simply jump to the water 20 feet below the trail. Those who don’t feel up to the challenge can opt to rappel. Don’t worry, no one is going to ostracize you as long as you can get down.
That’s a small but stunning waterfall that we passed along the way. Sitting below the flow would give you a totally relaxing back massage.
Traversing the length of Sampao River required a lot of swimming, sliding, jumping, and trekking! What an adventure!
We waded farther into the river and came to another ravine right in front of us. This one seemed to be quite deep and treacherous. We watched our guides in anticipation when we realized that our path skirts to the side of slanted canyon wall.
See that guy in blue without a life vest and helmet? He’s our trusty porter who, we learned later, has a slight fever. Poor guy! He left the adjacent trail and entered the river so he could provide us a longer rope for this rappel.
The pathway was unbelievably wet and slick. For safety, the guides rigged a safety line that leads to the rappel station. It’s easy to use; we just need to attach the ends of the cow’s tail to the rated rope.
One by one, we carefully made our way down. Check out the shiny, smooth, and moss-coated rock face; and we won’t have to tell you how slippery this part is. In fact, each of us encountered a couple of slips on the way down.
Joven and Halourd pulled Sweetie to another belay station once she entered the water. The current is quite strong here because the flow leads immediately to a vastly taller waterfall.
Check out the edge of the ledge where Joven and Halourd are standing. It’s pretty obvious that it is the lip of a tall drop-off.
Here’s another view of the 30-foot Trexplore waterfall (yes, they named this waterfall after their outfitter) from the belay station. Yes, it may not look tall; but believe us, that’s quite harrowing. The undercurrent here is relatively strong hence the need for a safety line towards the re-belay station.
Once everyone was on the ledge, we set up another long rappel. This time, we went down the gaping abyss that shelters the powerful 60-foot Nomad Falls. Look at the photo below so you’ll have an idea of how high this waterfall is.
That’s the view from above a ledge a quarter above Nomad Falls’ black-green pool. You can imagine just how slick the rock is. We developed impromptu innovative techniques to take advantage of the slipperiness; I used my trekking sandals as a skate.
Uhmmm….what are you doing, Sweetie? Awkward her technique may be, but she wanted to be sure…
Some techniques are snappy, some are awkward. But that doesn’t matter because we all successfully made it to the target ledge. We think you can see from the photo below that we were having the time of our lives!
The last hurdle to finally move on from Nomad Falls was to jump from this foliage-covered ledge to the black-green water below, which is around 25 feet below us. Uhmm…what’s the matter, Sweetie?
We didn’t have any problem jumping from that height; it’s exhilarating. Sweetie, on the other hand, was holding on to dear life on that flimsy branch! We encouraged her and did countdowns, but she held on to that piece of plant. We’re sure it would be ripped off sooner or later. Hehehe!
Come on, Sweetie, you can do it! And yes, after a minute, she did jump and laughed at herself.
Together again at the edge of the pool. Hey, where did the porter come from? Wow, we bet he’d have a great career as an illusionist or magician. Hehehe!
That’s Nomad Falls, where we came from. Don’t you just want to simply slide off the waterfall? Surprisingly, someone did but not from our team! No, not even the guides themselves did that stunt.
According to our guides, a Japanese guest, who was actually a member of some special forces division, took the challenge. No doubt the experience would have been exhilarating!
Check out our short teaser video of this part of our adventure. It is very obvious that “fun” is an understatement!
Someone called us–a familiar voice—as we got off the chilly pool. It was Nelmie, our driver, who was waiting for us at the lunch area. Hmm….did we say “lunch”? It’s about time! We reached this section of the river a few minutes past noon—right on schedule! But we couldn’t think about our itinerary as we were definitely famished after our high-octane morning adventure!
Our picnic-style lunch, which is part of the package, was simple, traditional, and very filling! We had freshly roasted and steaming inasal manok (roasted chicken) paired with delicious stewed mixed vegetables.
Let’s replenish our energy first shall we? Yes, we had a great Filipino lunch in the middle of nowhere! Bon apetit, and we’ll see you again in Part 2 of this true canyoning adventure.
Itineraries, budgets, and tips for this amazing extreme adventure will be posted in Part 2.
