And the trekking begins ...

And so it is Wednseday morning in Banaue, (pronounced Bana-wee).

Banaue is a small town in the province of Ifuago and it is here where the renowned and stunning rice terraces can be found, (sometimes referred to as 'the eighth wonder of the world'). Banaue is only 300km (approx 186 miles) north of Manila and a mere 1300km (approx 808 miles) above sea level!! And the best place to view this wonder is from a look out point at the top! 

I was beginning to approach these next few days with trepidation, you see the most walking I do at home is from the front door to the car and as for heights, well I can't even jump of a diving board anymore! But, as I said in my first post, this year was going to be a year of challenges. So here goes ...

We were up at 8:30 on a sleeping pill filled night, (and don't forget sheets that apparently smell of feet?!). Then it was a quick breakfast with the group before leaving at 9am prompt ... Well that was the theory anyway ...

Maybe we should briefly go back to the night before? When both TC and I had spent about an hour packing our day packs for the three day trek ahead of us. I had carefully rolled the essential clothes needed and double bagged all my valuables under the theory that I was probably going to end up doing a back flip into at least one of the rice terraces. While TC did her usual packing and re-packing and more re-packing and packing and huffing and puffing and puffing and huffing over not being able to squeeze her belongings, including her various lotions and potions for each section of her face and body, into her tiny 15 litre bag.

But we were organised ... Or were we?

And so, returning to the morning of the following day; we had had our early breakfast and were about to head off for a quick tour around the town before climbing onto the awaiting mini bus, when TC suddenly realised that she couldn't find her purse! Her purse containing all her money and credit cards! Panic immediately set in. She was quite definite that it was not in her day pack, she had searched it! It wasn't in her large wheelie suitcase, (she can't move with a large ruck sack strapped to her back), it wasn't in her tiny back pack - that she usually keeps inside her day pack?! And it wasn't in any of her pockets! She had had it with her at breakfast and it had just disappeared?!?! 

Immediately the whole group were up and in search of 'the purse'; we turned our bedroom upside down, it wasn't there, we searched around the restaurant, it wasn't there, Damian (Ironman) hoiked up her wheelie suitcase, placed it at my feet and instructed me on where to run my hands along and what to pull out, whilst trying to avert his eyes in order to protect TC's modesty! Both Jo F and I looked through her day pack - twice, thoroughly, honest! But it couldn't be found. The hotel even ran the CCTV footage of the dining room for TC and Bryan to scour through - it was just like an episode of CSI?! Then Tracey (one of The Aussies) calmly walked over to Jo F and I and suggested that we 'calmly' empty the day pack out and feel right down deep inside the pockets ... We did and there it was! Halley-bloody-luyah!! Rammed right down into the depths of the front pocket where TC then remembered she had shoved it for safe keeping!

After a collective sigh of relief and me throwing my little travel buddie a roll of the eyes and knowing look, a rather sheepish TC apologised to everyone, thanked them profusely and with her tail firmly tucked between her legs she joined us on our intro to the town of Banaue, with Bryan, our tour leader, still smiling but probably thinking "And it's only day one!"

The town itself is not that big, in fact it's tiny. There is a market place in the centre, with a few shops, a town hall and guest houses surrounding it. Oh and I vaguely remember seeing a fire truck but sadly no fire men!

First challenge: crossing the bridge to the mini bus waiting beyond ... Tick! 

Finally we were on the bus, with our day packs fully loaded and our main luggage left behind at The Greenview Lodge for us to collect in a couple of days. And we set off on our drive to Cambulo.

Now those of you that have followed my travels on previous posts will know that it is on the long transfers that my petite travel companion and I pass the time watching a TV drama that I've downloaded onto my tablet. This year it is 'River' and as we hadn't managed to start to watch it on the journey out to Banaue, the two of us settled in our seats and I plugged in the earphones and switched on the iPad. So I'm sure you can imagine the distress we felt when I realised that I'd made the dreadful mistake of not knowing that all six episodes had been downloaded straight to 'the cloud' and therefore we were unable to watch it until reaching a suitable wifi spot! And that wasn't going to be for days!! Having to deal with that and the whole 'purse-gate' saga was really starting to try our friendship!

But after about forty minutes we reached the starting point of our three day trek. First part was heading upwards through the rice terraces for a Guesthouse in Cambulo, this was only going to take us ... Three hours!