Bicycle Republic: Marine Base in Ternate, Cavite AKA Mt. Palpag (Palpak) trip.

Last month, me and my buddies planned to go for another bike and hike trip to Mt. Palpag in Maragondon, Cavite. We met up at around 7 in the morning near the Mall of Asia and rode the bikes all through Las Pinas, Bacoor, Naic, then Maragondon. We should have gone straight here (I guess) and not turned right to Ternate where we could not find a good local source to get some info on how to get to Mt. Palpag.

It was around 3 PM when we got to Ternate (slow, I know, but we had a lot of stops along the way to just dick around) and with not a lot of time left, we did not want to risk going into an unknown trail and getting lost so we decided to go straight and look for the Marine Base in Ternate, Cavite.

We pushed our bikes slowly up to the DENR station where the jump off to Pico de Loro is, (you mountaineers know this of course). It was already dark when we got there and I got the chance to try my new Energizer headlamp while riding the bike.

IT WORKED GREAT! My buddies and I were impressed by how bright it was. I bought the headlamp after our last failed attempt to climb Mt. Sembrano where we had to run down the trail from the mountain in near darkness. For around 500 pesos, it ain't bad!

Back to my story, we finally got to the Marine Base at around 7 PM I think. The soldier at the gate collected Php600 from the three of us (the entrance is just Php100 if it's not overnight, Php200 is the overnight rate). There's also a fee for pitching your tent at the beach but they do have rooms that you could rent out but we had our tents with us and we planned to camp out on the beach.

The beach is far from the gate, I celebrated prematurely when I reached the gate thinking I could get some chow soon but it turns out the beach is over 4 kms. away from the gate. It was all down hill so at least that made it easier.

Finally! The beach! Like any beach in the Philippines, there's bound to be a videoke. THERE'S ALWAYS A VIDEOKE IN THE BEACH. There's a store there where you could get cold Coke and other food so that helped.

My friend Jeff made quick friends with some of the carpenters who were working at the base. We shared our dinner of sandwiches with corned beef and cheese AND COKE! I finally had to excuse myself so I could sleep inside the tent.

Morning time and while there's no bugle call in this Marine camp, you could observe the Marines doing their drills on the beach and in their barracks nearby. Be aware though, that you're not allowed to take pics of the soldiers for obvious reasons.

What's nice about the Marine Base's beach is the white sand. It's also long and wide and the water isn't that deep. You could see Corregidor and Bataan from the beach. We took a dip in the beach after breakfast until it was time to pack up and leave.

On the way home, it was good to see a troop of monkeys right after we got out of the gate. This area is in fact part of the Mt. Palay Palay reserve and it's nice to know that wildlife is indeed being given a good sanctuary here.

Tips and tricks time!
1) We FAILED to find the trail to Mt. Palpag. In fact, we're calling this trip the Mt. Palpak (failure) trip. If you know how to go to Mt. Palpag, lemme know in the comments.

2) Entrance at the beach is Php 100 per head for day trips, Php 200 for overnight. There are rooms available but this could be hard to get hold of during weekends. I don't know if you could reserve a room. It might help if you have a cadet in the camp.

3) Total distance is over 80 kms all the way to the Marine Base. If you want to camp on the beach, there's a fee for pitching the tent.

4) DO TRY THE LOLO CLARO's RESTAURANT along the way. They serve great chicken that could give Max's Restaurant a run for their money!

5) When we made the trip, the Nasugbu-Ternate tunnel was already open so it's now possible to make a roundtrip using that route.