While the whole city of Davao is celebrating its 81st year me and my friends decide to go out of town. Last March 16, friday, was declared as a holiday, local holiday in Davao City, as part of one week celebration and it is a great opportunity for us to explore this newly visited natures attraction. At first i hesitated to join for some reasons, but they insist that i should go with them, they want me to go coz they know they will not get bored while on the way. Plus, its been a while since the last time i joined them so i decided to go and personally see the real beauty of this said falls.
- It is located at Sitio Matigol, Kamarahan, Arakan North Cotabato
- Nearly at the boundary of Davao City and North Cotabato
- 3 hours travel from Davao City to Kamarahan (non stop)
- 45mins - 1 hour walk from highway to Sitio Matigol (though 1hr is too long)
- 1 hr and half walk from Sitio going to the falls foot (with picture takings hahaha)
It is been agreed by the group to start traveling @ 3am, so some of us including me decided to sleep in our main office where our rented van will also wait for us. The long wait is over and we started to hit the road hahaha.
After an hour or two hours of our ride we reach Calinan and stop to capture these awesome view from the top.
A sentential flower standing alone, but i envy to him for he can see every morning these kind of scenario.
i love flowers so i took a picture of this one too.
Almost 7am when we got our full stop and take a walk going to Sitio Matigol. There are motorcycles standing by just in case you want to be there asap. But, we want to take it slow so we just walk and enjoy the rocky road.
While on our way, we meet this little girl around 3 years old, she reach her hand to everyone (para mag mano) i dont know the exact term hahaha sorry for that. Im not surprise about it coz that is our traits, filipino traits or values what ever it is, even though its rare to see this traits now a days. Seriously, i myself, isn't doing this anymore to my parents. I felt guilt that i am teaching my daughter to be respectful but i myself couldn't do it. What she did awake me and i thank him. After that, we again meet another group of four children going to school. They're not in their uniform but we knew they are bound to school. I am carrying my pack bag with food, biscuits, water and extra shirts. I can see that they've been walking for too long, they looked tired and exhausted. I can feel them, coz i have the same life to them when i was in my secondary. When you walk for two hours under the sun or enjoy the rain coz you're on half-way to your school and no time to go back home. I just felt sorry for them because at young age their experience the hardship of living in a remote area where to be in school is almost a suffering, but at the same time i can say that they blessed coz their life may be hard but they are strong enough to face it at early stage. As the saying goes
"hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny"
I want to give them some of biscuits but then i realize is not mine and the owner is ahead of me, but then our group leader is with me so i just ask him if i can give some our food i'll just explain to her is she good to know he agreed. So i gave them one each of the biscuits. At first they're shy, but we insist then they took it and run later on turn their back and say thank you in chorus. We continue our walk and finally reach Sitio Matigol, where those children we met came from.
I forgot to ask but I think this is their Datu or Tribal Leaders House
They have their registration fee for only 35php and orientation about their rules.
While waiting for the others to arrive and taking our rest, i saw this flower for the first time
They call it flower ball
I misheard it and thought it was "power ball", so i said, i guys i now know that son guko isn't from japan but from matigol lol...
Papa Myk bought some souvenirs.
After paying and our late comers had their rest we started again to walk going to out destination. Exactly 8:00am when i look at my cellphone when we are leaving. While walking i run to our porter to ask some questions about what is the name of their tribe, their leaders name, when was the first time i was discovered and how he got his name etc,. She said, they are from the tribe of obo-manubo taurog, yes you read it correctly. Taurog not tausug she said they are different, tausug are muslims and taurog are not, so i never asked about it and continue listening while she added that the leader is their relative probably her uncle. The leadership is pass through relatives thus i could say that they are all relatives living in one sitio. Furthermore the falls was visited 15 years ago so that was 2003, but isn't known as today because of Facebook. Those visitors, during their visit meet a person from other sitio, they ask if where did he came from they were told his from Bani, so that is how the falls got his name Bani Falls, but she want to make it clear to us that Sitio Bani is too far and it belongs to Sitio Matigol when we talk about its exact location. She is right in any way so i agree to her.
From here all these picture will tell you what happened.
After an hour of ups and downs we took a stop to eat, drink, smoke and rest for a while coz the sun isn't friendly this time hahaha....
Finally we had a glimpse after a short walk we were able to see now where we are heading.
We reach its foot in short time, i think the excitement drive us to walk faster despite of the hardship of the road downhill.
One hour rest and picture taking isn't enough but we have to climb up to see the other half of it. The way is not the same before it is more dangerous because its steepness, where sometimes your knee and your jaw would kiss. Rocks are sharp and you have to depend on the rope, old ropes left by the others to hold on.
(
)
Despite of the hardship they never stop laughing, i never stop talking nonsense making jokes just to make them laugh. I know they are tired, they are not used to it unlike me I've been living in mountain for too long so this kind of walk is not new to me. I know that if i will stop talking they will feel tired, their minds will be focus to the obstacles, they will lose the excitement and worst might turn around. So to keep them busy i made jokes, pushed them, pull them up, take pictures. I am afraid that the rain may fall and the water will rise then we have to cross so that would be difficult, risky coz mostly of us are girls. Half hour when we reach the mid and we take a rest.
Another half hour to reach the top where we can take our lunch and full rest. In the camp site we pay a horse to carry all our food for lunch to be brought here so that when we reach here all we gonna do is to eat and enjoy. There is a shortcut going here but we couldn't see the lower part that is why we took the other route.
Some pictures here captures the road we took going down to its foot
When we are done with our lunch we enjoyed the coldness of water and heat of the sun hahaha,, then we pack our things and starts to walk again going back to the camp and all the way to the highway where our van is waiting.
"If it excites you and scares you at the same time, it probably means you should do it"
Thats all,, hope you guys enjoy. Thanks see yah next time..
Behind us if you can see was our way down. We are on top of it and we are satisfied for everything.
DONT FORGET:
To vote my witness, simply visit https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type in "steemgigs" into the first search box for witnesses or simply click Here to do it on one click!
If you want me to make witness voting decisions on your behalf, simply visit https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type in "surpassinggoogle" in the second box for proxy
