Getting Lost in Nature: Hiking to Palati Falls, Tablas Island
One of my mountaineering friends (RJ) shared an event on Facebook and it caught my interest because RBM already went over there and unfortunately I wasn’t able to go because of the bad weather.
Well, I was caught in between which event should I go with, because my training class (Tourism Promotion Services or TPS) had planned to do round Tablas on the same day (July 21th), but I got help from above when Sir Gab had a prior commitment in the morning so the whole plan of TPS will not materialize.
As planned, the group meets up at Children Paradise at 6:00 AM. I was a late comer, but they waited for me and while preparing to hit the road, a classmate and friend (MJ) from TPS went near me, it turns out she went to the training center, but it was closed and she happened to see me, so I asked her if she wanted to go with us. She’d like to, so I informed RJ about it, and they find someone from the group for her to back ride.
Brgy. Libertad is subdivided into four sitios, and one of them is Palati, which was my destination the day after my TPS group visited Mainit Falls, it is the most interior part of the Barangay and its name means second growth forest. Palati Falls is located in Libertad, but our jump-off was in Sitio Boliganay of Brgy. Panique, a barangay after Libertad if you are coming from the town. The road to Boliganay is under-construction so as expected, it is muddy during the rainy season, if you don’t want to be stuck in the mud you really need to drive carefully.
When we arrived at the jump-off, we did only a short prayer and there was no stretching because the young guys were saying not to stretch anymore. We started walking up hill, gladly MJ went with me or else I have to walk a little bit slower to walk with the sweeper who’s accompanying the hikers that were a bit slow.
The trail was muddy, it is combined of uphill and downhill. There was no clearing so you can’t appreciate the view that much, the sky is gloomy. Nevertheless, all of us enjoyed the abundance of water in the streams, as well as the presence of guavas along the way.
MJ and I were in the middle together with two highschool students who are just a few meters away from us, ahead of us were my fellow RBM members. We reached the point where we are not able to see the first group, we have waited a bit where the two highschool students met us, and since MJ and I were both impatient waiting for the last group so we head on and followed the trail leaving behind the two young girls.
(MJ #feelingtired)
We reached a place where there are three houses, where we have asked where to go, the woman in the last house informed us that there was a path going to Palati Falls behind the smokehouse, so we did and I carefully examined the mud, and I was sure it was the right path since I am seeing fresh footprints of shoes in the soil and when we climb upwards, it was all grass and the footprints were gone, I looked around and found an almost hidden path behind the thick cogon grasses. We traversed it and we both realized where moving away from the sound of swift flowing water, we end up to a small shaft with a pig tied in the yard and dogs barking at us. We called out, but no one is answering so we decided to return to the smokehouse, and there we found two paths. One is going to the left and the other one is going upward, but we are sure when we passed by at that point that there was no other path other than the path we took. You know, what is bothering me, when we passed by a coconut leaf fell from the tree on the left side, I don’t know what does it mean. If someone tried to warn us that we are heading to a wrong path or someone blocked the left path so we will choose the path upward?
Anyway, we decided to try the left path and we end up in a rocky stream, I have told MJ that maybe if we follow the stream we will not be lost, since the water will be surely coming from the falls. Maybe due to fear and excitement, I slid on the rocks not just once, but twice, and the second one was almost fatal because I slid into the water with my phone. It scares the hell out of me because I don’t know how deep the water was, as we continue to walk the rocky stream I have seen people ahead of us, giving us a relief that we are on the right path to the falls.
When we are nearing RJ meet us half-way, he said they just arrived as well and he is about to look for us because he didn’t see us around. I have told him, we got lost. The first group ahead of us were sorry that they left us when I told them we are just behind them, they also said they also almost get lost and they asked one of them to check the path upward if it is the right path or not, I didn’t inform them anymore about the coconut leaf that fell because my mind is not on its proper place, I was feeling scared, nervous and unwell for my phone. It is the second Asus Selfie phone I accidentally dropped in the water, the first one died after it swam in the salt water when it was not a year old yet and this second one is just less than two months old and it swam in the water too.
We reached Palati Falls for about over two hours, including the time where MJ and I got lost. If you walk faster you can reach Palati Falls in one and one half hours.
Palati Falls was on its beauty when we decided to visit it, there was a lot of water because of non-stop rain on the past few days. We rested a bit and decided to eat our lunch together, afterwards endless photo shoots. We stayed for about an hour and descended together. We took a different trail going home, we traversed the river heading to the dam site where heavy rain fell on us, making us all soak.
Palati Falls isn’t for the frail of heart, but seeing it with your own eyes is very fulfilling so you must see it once in your life . You can hire a motorcycle from downtown town and it is up to you to haggle, but ₱40-₱50.00 is enough to reach the Barangay Hall of Libertad, where you can ask for help or guide, or if you need someone to guide you, don’t hesitate to contact me I can maybe help you to find one depending on the availability of my fellow mountaineers. The jump-off is located at Sitio, Boliganay of Brgy. Panique, Odiongan, Romblon. You must remember that hiking to Palati Falls takes about two hours, the trail is slippery when raining so wear proper shoes to avoid meeting an accident.