Hi there. It is my pleasure to share to you once again some of my travel adventures for this year. Actually, I have written already about this about a month ago but I just want to make it as detailed as possible for you to appreciate our experience.
Last February, a friend of mine asked us to visit their place in the town of Columbio. She invited us to go and visit their one of kind tourist spot that was just discovered recently, a place where a river cave and falls can be found. For this year, it is my goal to visit different places together with my friends and that is why we gladly accepted the offer and decided to schedule our trip.
Columbio, is one of the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, on the island of Mindanao. It happens that my work is based on this province and quite aware of its geographical location. But this will be my first visit there. This town is about 1-2 hours ride from the City of Tacurong, depending on what transport you will take. We decided to go there the day before and have a rest at our friend's house. This is in order for us to go to the spot early morning the following day and to avoid too much crowd. If lucky, we can also have a glimpse of the sunrise.
At 5:30 am the following morning, we jump off from our friend's place and went to Brgy. Sinapulan, where the said nature spots can be found. Our mode of transport is motorcycle since the terrain will be uphill and some portions of the road are still unpaved. We still felt the cold morning air as the sun is about to rise. At around 6:30 am, we arrived at the destination. Unknowingly, we still have to take a walk about 30-45 minutes to the spot. It is quite a journey from me since it is been a while that I have some trekking trips and not that in condition for the activity. It is tiring since there are portions of the trail that is about 60 degrees uphill and quite scary since you are also walking alongside a ravine. If you are a person with a faint of heart for heights, just think of the pleasure once you arrived at your destination.
From afar, we can already hear the sounds of the flowing streams. This made me motivated to push for more walks to get to our destination. We arrived at the first kiosks beside the riverbanks and was met by the locals who maintain the area. According to them, it is still another 30 minutes to get to the falls and after a brief rest, we started to walk again. The water as we walk along the stream is icy cold. I am aware of these since this is common especially on the rivers that can be found in the mountains here in Mindanao.
As we walk along, we have passed the spot that went viral in social media, the Sinapulan Cave. It is about 20-30 feet across and it is very spectacular. It is like a natural swimming pool with a shower at the center, a treasure made by nature itself. According to my friend, this spot was accidentally discovered by some personnel who conducted community outreach to the local tribespeople and by then, it is still covered by vines and grasses, concealing itself from the outside.
We decided to get along and will drop by the spot when we return. After roughly 30 minutes, we saw one of the most beautiful places that I have ever see.
The spot was about 50 feet of connecting smaller falls. We never took a break and have a snap of picture of the falls once we arrived. The water is enticing, seems to invite us to plunge immediately after a tiring walk. I am sure that every one after the long walk would feel tired but witnessing such marvelous creation has never made us felt such. We have our breakfast on one of the huts in the area, surrounded by trees and grasses. After eating, we now went to take a swim. The area above the falls has a water reservoir where you can take a dip and have some refreshing feel of the cold water. After dipping, the draft of the wind that touched our bodies is twice as cold. That experience is truly remarkable. After an hour, we decided to return to the cave to continue our travel experience.
Our journey was tiring but witnessing such a beautiful place have sure made an unforgettable experience for us. I am sure that no one can resist the temptation of going in this one of a kind place. I would love to go back here and recommend it to others who want to experience this amazing nature trip.