motorcycle road trip to davao city

 

 

I had been to Davao City four times in the past, all for official trips—visiting model cooperatives in 2002, joining the 2003 PEARLS Olympics, attending the 8^th FOCCUS Awarding ceremony, and participating in the CU-TE Batch 8 Trainors’ Training in 2005. The first one was via the ordinary Bachelor trip, the next two were in a chartered Bachelor bus, while the last one was in the Coop service vehicle.

 

But going there on a motorcycle had always been an exciting idea. Reading the stories of Iron Butt riders gets me drooling in awe and envy. Scaling down their adventures to fit my budget, physical capacity and hardware was an option if only to have a peek into this kind of trip.

 

A random call to Homer, my behemoth of a riding buddy, brought me close to that trip. He was a newly accepted member of KARANCHO, and together with other members from different chapters in Southern Leyte, they were scheduled to attend the 12^th Annual Convention of KABABAYAN RIDERS FOR NEW CULTURAL HARMONY AND ORDER (KARANCHO) in Almendras Gym, Davao City in January 25-26, 2008.

 

Without thinking twice about it, I signed up for the trip.

 

The ride would be more than 1,000 kms to and from Davao City. Wow! The longest I had before that was only 300 kms two-way from Kananga to Silago and back.

 

I picked up some tips from this website on group long distance riding. this was also helpful

 

My travel checklist has the following items:

 

TRAVEL CHECKLIST

1. tools (c/o 61)
2. tube
3. spark plug
4. rain gear (c/o reynold)
5. shorts
6. one pair pants (baggy)
7. five t-shirts
8. one pair of socks
9. face towels
10. handkerchief
11. mineral water
12. biscuits
13. or/cr
14. money
15. mp4
16. sandals
17. large cellophanes (at least 3)
18. luggage support (c/o 61)
19. cp charger

I was to meet homer and anching with the rest of the group in lilo-an at around 7am on January 25. this quaint little town has a port terminal for ferry boats servicing lilo-an to lipata route. lilo-an for a long time has been the jump-off point to surigao city.

only on the night before did homer tell me that his wife erlyn would be with us for the trip, and that she will ride pinion with me to lilo-an. That’s more than 150 kms of driving with a back rider in an early morning trip!

 

Excitement with a dose of anxiety is a sure formula to rob you of a deep sound sleep. A minute before 4 am I was at homer’s doorstep to pick up erlyn. ( had this an official meeting I would have been late for a good one hour, I amusingly told myself)