HEARTINi's Travel #2: Bike Ride to MORONG STAR Beach Resort, Bataan, Philippines PART 1

This is one of my bike rides and I've courageously taken up the challenge of going to Morong Star Beach Resort, Located in Sitio Panibatuhan, Morong, Bataan, Philippines.

This is actually my first long ride after learning how to ride a mountain bike, this is not my kind of sport for a very long time, even as a kid, I'd rather play basketball, billiard or just simply running, it never came to my mind that I would actually be riding a bike from home to somewhere hundreds of kilometer kind of long ride.

here's a picture of my bike Thompson taking a rest after a long ride,

The Steel but Terrible Thompson haha

Preparing for the Big day

It is a very important part of riding a bike, the preparation, without proper gear, tool, physical and mental condition, even if you're one of the best riders, lacking these preparations might spell trouble.

I think this is the tools I need for this ride, it may not be complete, but at least it will help

I even brought extra interior for my tire in case I got flat tires.

And of course, I thoroughly checked my bike to see if it's in proper condition for long ride,

Morning of truth

After everything has been said and done, the big day has come, I prayed for our safe journey, not only because I'm new to long ride, but for the condition and circumstances of all riders that will be joining this long of hours pain and endurance battle on the road.

BikeBrothers
Everyone's excited, chatting and checking one's bike, I'm also excited seeing how many riders are gathered for this day

As we start to heat up the pedals on our bike, then we took off from our meet up location with joyous smile on our faces, like little kids having candies in our sweet little hands, not knowing the harsh battle we're going to face,

"Buena Mano" as I call it, for I am the first to experience flat tire,

as this ride start and being the first to be struck by this kind of situation, I've been cautious on our way, mixed emotion has plunge my mind, will I be alright after what happened? will my tire be flat again? I'm preparing myself for that scenario,

Even after encountering obstacle, we continue to pedal our way to our journey, and on our first stop, at 7-11 convenience store after entering Lubao town proper in Pampanga, for refreshments and refill,

Not very long after our first stop, This is one of our stops somewhere at San Isidro, Lubao, Pampanga

Buko Juice saves the day

It's like anywhere we stop for a bit of rest, that place booms with energetic bikers, and of course, they have a good business with us thirsty and exhausted riders,

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and so we continue our journey, a very long stretch of flat road in Lubao, Pampanga,

Being one of the newbie riders of the group, it can be called kinda frustrating, being in the tailing group because I'm slow and having a steel mountain bike, adds up to the difficulty of the ride.

Entering Dinalupihan Town Proper

Nothing much happened here, just a long flat road and sometimes scenic beauty

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A long stretch of land, a boring flat if there are no great views here, you might fall asleep haha

Flat road all the way, that's what I had in mind, but then the moment we enter the mountains the smile on our face turns sour, sudden increase of elevation, though its quite amazing seeing as how many riders we are, descending the road downhill, the noise and the light from our bike, it fun to watch, then climb up again, it's like a never-ending Ups and Down of the road. The sun is setting, and we're still on the road, with no intention to stop until we reach a certain checkpoint, the Kalapati (Dove) Monument,

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It's Dark when we get there, so no one didn't bother taking selfie from that place, everyone's tired and hungry, but it's a short stop there, just to collect our group because we got scattered from all those climbing of the road,

After a bit of rest, we continue our way to our next checkpoint,

Entering Olongapo City Proper

"Let's eat" The magic word, the signal, the cue for us to go search for food stand, good thing we arrived just in time for dinner at Olongapo City

Food Stand to the rescue
The quiet place turned lively the moment we stop to eat dinner,

Photo by Jose Belinario
It is important for riders to recharge their energy from this long journey, and were 60% from completion, so there so much climbing left for us, we need to regain our strength, before going back to the road,

Entering Subic Bay Freeport Zone

Who would've imagined that even veteran cyclist can get their tire punctured, on this part of our journey, one by one, there's flat tire everywhere, maybe because its a long road travel, so it's kinda understandable that our tire won't hold up that much,

Photo by Jose Belinario
This part of our journey is the creepiest because it's almost midnight, we're in the middle of the mountains of Morong, Bataan, and to top it all off, my lights been flickering, almost out of battery, the distance of a light post proves to be a challenge for us cyclist whose climbing the road of this mountainous terrain leading to our fated destination.

There's this dark part where suddenly my light turned dim, there's nothing I could see to this pitch black road, only this faint road marking is what leading my way, so that I won't fall off the cliff, one thing I learned that day, always bring spare light battery haha

Almost There

and at last, after all the pain and trouble that we endured, we're almost there as in almost there haha
and what've you expect, here a rare image of me, sleeping while standing, they really did a number on me that time,

MORONG Star Beach Resort & Hotel

Morong Star

From Home, this is the route we took to get here, and Yes! we conquered our weakness, at least for this distance haha

So we took a good night rest, for tomorrow we'll greet ourselves with waves of salty beach water we came here for,

Morning at the beach

As one could say, this is definitely a reward for our perseverance,

It's so refreshing to get wet by the beach, and wash all those sweat away haha

We will only be here for half a day because as much as we want to stay longer, we all have work the next day,

So we kinda enjoy this treat for ourselves,

Morong Star Beach Resort packs with adventure and recreational environment, so if you ever plan on going to the Philippines, never forget to drop by and enjoy here at the Sunniest part of Morong Bataan,

And because we will be riding back home this afternoon, we decided to restore our energy through eating haha

We looked for cheap eatery around the area, and alas, found one,

And once again, they caught me sleeping in some weird position, darn, they really enjoyed taking a snap out of me

Before this handsome guy woke up, I'll be leaving you again hanging, but worry not, my next post will be packed with the beautiful scenic photograph as we descend from mountains of Morong, Bataan.

I hope you enjoyed this adventure as I really enjoyed it, despite the hardship it gives us, all the pain is very well paid by the beauty and experience of having been there at Morong Star Beach Resort & Hotel, It's a wonderful memory for all of us bikers who gathered and venture the northern part of Luzon, Philippines.

Thank you for all your support in my blog, it's such a wonderful experience being here at Steemit, never a moment of regret comes to my mind since I joined the Family, I still consider myself new here, so please bear with my simplistic approach to all thing around here,

Thanks be to God for taking care of us in this long journey!!!

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