The Philippines - The Islands of Coron, Chapter Four

During our time in the town of Coron, we stayed in a beautiful, gorgeous hostel called Hop Hostel. It's located on the northwest part of the town, up the hill, and offers absolutely mind-blowing views from the rooftop terrace at the top of the building! Even better yet is that the rooms start at a modest price of 679 pesos (about £9 or $11) per night! The staff here were so friendly, and the facilities are some of the best I've experienced of any hostel (and trust me I've stayed in a lot!). With a cinema room, dedicated kitchen, restaurant and rooftop bar, you'll have everything you need. It's also easy to meet people here, and book island trips from the reception. We also rented our motorcycles from the hostel which were delivered straight to our front door!

The day after I arrived back from the island tour, I decided to see what the island had to offer. I hopped on our bikes, donned my raincoat (as there are likely short tropical showers through the day) and set off to our first destination: Cabo Beach, which was east of the town. The trail was tough, particularly by bike, and I wouldn't recommend it to novice riders at all. The route took us through Coron, by the docks and up into the hills where the road eventually disappeared and slowly turned into mud and rocks where one wrong move would send me and my bike to muddy ground. After a wet drive, I was determined to make it to Cabo beach despite the rough road. I used my trusty offline maps (courtesy of Maps.me on my Samsung S8) as the signal was pretty bad.

It directed me off the main "path" and towards the sea, and I followed it until I came to a small dusty car park where I paid a measly 10 pesos for parking. As soon as I had parked and turned the ignition off, as if by magic, the rain completely stopped and the clouds parted making way for the much sought after sunshine. I made my way down to the sandy shores of Cabo Beach and chilled for a bit with a coffee from a nearby shack. The views were great, with actual Coron island in the distance slightly obscured by the mist. I decided to set my drone up and fly it above the beach, getting some stunning views of the beach and the surrounding jungle!

After taking in the sights and as the clouds came back, I got back on my bike and drove past the muddy trail and back through Coron to try and make it to the modest waterfalls of Concepcion, which is about 50km due east of Cabo Beach. This took about an hour and a half and for this trip I was joined again by my colleague who I met back at the hostel. Luckily the clouds started to clear for this trip and allowed us a stunning ride through the Philippine countryside. And what a ride it was. The roads were very well maintained, which was surprising as we were on just a small island. But moreso, the views were incredible, with the road snaking through the mountains which made the hour that it took for us to get to the waterfall feel like simply just seconds. We passed rice paddies, jungle, palm tree forests, sea inlets and shear cliff edges and this view was all completely free. Apart from the bike rental of course, which was a very meagre 450 pesos per day (about £7 or $9).

We arrived at Concepcion falls which is a modest waterfall just a ten minute trek through the jungle. A small dam was built to form a lake at the base of the waterfalls, and makes for a very refreshing swim! After a few photographs around the area, we drove back, stopping for lunch and eventually heading back to the hostel. My last few days here was fast approaching, so I had a couple of things in mind - the natural hot springs, and climbing the locally famed Mt. Tapyas at sunset. Keep up for my next blog for the Final Chapter in Coron!

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🌏 | Coron, The Philippines
📷 | Canon PowerShot SX730 HS/DJI Spark
🎨 | Lightroom Mobile edits used

Over the next few weeks I'll be trekking through The Philippines and I'll be sharing with you my stories, emotions, advice and tips about this wonderful place. I will be doing this while sharing my photographs with all of you too. I sincerely hope this inspires you to go out there and travel!

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Click on the photograph in case you missed the last adventure...

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