The Four Island Ride (Cebu to Leyte to Samar to Luzon Islands)

[ray_ray]

This was quite a ride, ~1200 miles, 11 days riding with a couple off days added due to a bike break on day 11 ... ~Too much cement riding as we are finding out that the Philippines has replaced or is replacing dirt roads with cement all over the entire island chain apparently ...

The Filipino people are helpful and great throughout everywhere we went... their way of life and attitude on life and their daily routines never ceases to amaze me.

I limited my 08 TXC 250 to ~6,000 RPMs on the roads (~40MPH -- 14\50 gearing) because I was not going to risk its engine running down cement roads over the duration of this ride ... I will need it for the future

I'll just start adding pics and small videos here and see what happens ... I'm liking the Playsport video recorder for this type riding and making small videos on the fly ...


The 08 TXC250 Husky at the first port area ... We are just north of Danao City on the island of Cebu and south of Carmen proper ... First ferry takes us to Leyte! General Douglas MacArthur returned here a few decades back and is a true war hero still.


We roll onto the ferry on the right .... Not too large as compared to other ferries we have encountered ..


That is Cebu in the distance ..


First look at the coast of Leyte.


A view from a small beach resort where we met some new friends (McCoy and Bret) for some tips on crossing Leyte over dirt instead of cement.

 

[JasonfromMN]

looks like another excellent adventure! I cant believe the mileage you cover!

 

[ray_ray]

Still on Leyte heading north to Samar ....

My riding friend and bike touring business partner had a flat so we stopped in for a fix ... 2 Police officers show up... one pulling the other as one has a broken throttle cable ...


The bridge over from Leyte to Samar...


We get a Welcome sign as expected ...


Stopped for some rain ... This was one of just a couple times we got rained on ...


Apocalypse Now

 

[ray_ray]

looks like another excellent adventure! I cant believe the mileage you cover!

It was really cool riding in many places, really cool scenery almost everywhere and the mileage was a surprise to me also ... We went well over 100 miles per day several times ... My friend is wanting to expand out to multi-island tours so we need to check the route and ferry rides first hand ... You never really know what is out there till you ride it ...we changed engine oil once but really needed to do it twice ... Also, we ended up shipping the bikes back by Superferry from Manila and flying back to Cebu ... We just ran out of time ... I can really see why the true ADV guys really need the big bikes for touring around ...

 

[ray_ray]

As we continue north across Samar, we see a beach and many families having a party so we stop and chat and we get some alcohol as expected..


Sardine village? Seems like each different area might have its own way of making a living ...


Many roads across Samar looked like dirt road ...


Just another dead end street that had an interesting view...

 

[ray_ray]

Low tide and another chance to go out onto the beach for a quick pic ..


This is a river crossing, the first of 2 ... Apparently cars not allowed on this part of the road as they cannot cross here ... If I ever get a boat here ... It will have this type of front end for easy loading of my bike...

Fans of the 08 TXC250 Husky


More fans of the Husky ...Here we are on the dock, at dark, needing to cross over this river ...

 

[ray_ray]

Here we are arriving across the river after riding across in total blackness in this small pump boat ...These guys do this every day and night so no big deal to them ... Each one of these guys has a boat ..So if we ride his boat, he is the captain ... If we ride another boat, he might become the loading crew ... How's that for a business plan? And this plays out all day and all night probably ...

We did not think any 2 of them could carry our heavy 4t machines down to the water, turn the bike sideways as in the pics and loading procedure, carry it onto the boat and then spin it around so that it would fit into the boat but we were wrong ...All they wanted was some cardboard for the pegs and off they went loading the bikes ... They really wanted to show us that they could do the work correctly and easily ...same as any other professional worker ..



At this point, only 2 guys have the bike really ...There is not enough room for anyone else to lift any weight ... The guy on the back side actually walks down the top rails of the boat carrying the bike ... The best thing we can do is get out of the way of the PROs...

 

[ray_ray]

We are finished with Samar and now head to the island of Luzon via a ~large ferry ...


Another welcome sign when we arrive ....

Our camp site for the first night on Luzon... The water there is filled with small star fish and the water is crystal clear ...


The entire area was just like you see here .... water about 4" deep here...


This blue one was out closer to the waves offshore... The water is about 10" deep there...

 

[ray_ray]

Here is our first look at MT Mayon .....





A few small videos of the camping area and crystal clear water ....

 

[letitsnow]

Nice!

 

[ray_ray]

This is actually a road but it has a washed out bridge (and land slides) about 3/4 mile down so no one is using it so it has no real path beat-out by the locals for us to follow... We should have read it as un-passable and not wasted our time going up and around it ... There was some nice views up there though but no wind so it was very hot...



This was a very nasty switchback ... straight down for about 10' or so if you go over.... You can tell I'm pondering this move ....






Dual peaks and crystal clear water ...

 

[glangston]

Thanks for the pics. My name-sake uncle died on take-off from Samar in March, 1945 in a B-24 after re-fueling. I've been to Micronesia (Yap, Palau, Ponape) Guam, Nauru, Tahiti, Fiji, but not to your area....someday...

 

[ray_ray]

We're getting close to MT Mayon!


MT Mayon ADV Park entrance...

That is a very large cooled lava flow to the right of my bike ....


6KM safety radius marker ...

This is as close as we got to the volcano as darkness was closing in ....

 

[ray_ray]

Thanks for the pics. My name-sake uncle died on take-off from Samar in March, 1945 in a B-24 after re-fueling. I've been to Micronesia (Yap, Palau, Ponape) Guam, Nauru, Tahiti, Fiji, but not to your area....someday...

1945? Things were pretty busy here most likely ... Maybe someday mankind will not need wars to further their needs and we can all just enjoy each day as we see fit ...

I should be here till I die quite possibly ... Let me know if I can help with anything when you decide to come over ...

 

[ray_ray]

KA Vergels Trail Stop was next ... Super cool small native farm outside Makati a few miles ... These few pics can not show how cool a place this is or how nice the people there were to us ...

Each Sunday dirt bike riders(10-30 riders) meet there for their weekly ride ... I'd like to live there a few months out of the year in the future ...



Front entry point...


Back side of the fish ponds ...

HQ

Team 20/20 poster

 

[ray_ray]

These are the Mount Pinatubo lahar pics ... I was reading that the walls here are made of mud and ash ... Its very soft stuff ...

New construction here at this entry point... Going to the left is upstream and towards the volcano ... we traveled both ways as the riding was very easy on the wet sand and 4" deep water....

 

[ray_ray]

This is one end of the lahar at this water fall ...






The locals made a hot tube out of the natural water coming from the ground ...


This is the hot water just bubbling out of the ground

 

[ray_ray]

I rode the Husky back out down the stream ...


These yahoos were coming in as we were heading back down stream


Gnarly but very rideable...

This is downstream past the entry point... we rode 2-3 miles down stream ...

Found this suspension bridge that got trashed maybe by the typhoon last month...

 

[ray_ray]

I got stuck a couple times here at the end of our downstream travel...


Looks like I have a little knobby left.


Those trucks were just blasting across that hard packed sand road.


We found a trail out of the lahar ...

and I got into the Carabao lane and stuck the Husky again
..

 

[ray_ray]

Here are a couple more videos to give you a better idea of what it was like in this lahar... The water is running pretty fast and there is a ~big elevation drop from the water fall back down to the bridge area... There were lots of rocks the size of grape fruits being rolled down stream in the water ...

The only real problem with the Husky was the rear chain guide ... the materiel inside the guide did not make it the entire trip and I had to use super glue to attach some mud flap material inside it ...

The IRC VE-33 knobby surprisingly lasted the entire ride ...

Husky HR meter ... before and after shots ... That top RPM mark was probably hit when I got stuck in the lahar ... Overall, the bike performed well as expected ... ESP when he hit any dirt ... I did find out the clutches drag very bad when using straight dino oil ... And adding that HS water pump propeller helped greatly with keeping the bike from overheating.