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HINATUAN RIVER, Surigao del Sur |
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December 17, 2001, my friend and fellow explorer Jun Osano picked me up at Davao City. He was very excited about our plan of kayaking Hinatuan River. This is a very large river that runs into several municipalities and flows out to Pacific Ocean. Hinatuan is known to have crocodiles and Dugongs (Sea Cow). We knew the dangers of exploring a crocodile infested river, that is why we asked around if there were recent sightings. Getting a positive response from five out of five persons we asked, we were more eager to explore this river than before. The weather in Bislig is very unpredictable, sometimes it rains very very hard at night and shines the whole day after. We can't find the perfect chance where we could execute a perfect, mistake-free exploration. We had to postpone twice due to this unpredictable weather. We had our kayak inflated and ready to float. We had two Personal Floatation Devices, three short range radios, two VHF radios, two Global Positioning Systems, two maps, two cameras and two waterproof bags. You might say that this is overkill, and I would agree more, but its better to be safe that swallowed! After 3 consecutive days of heavy rains, we finally had the chance to explore Hinatuan river on a kayak, but we had to settle with brown flood waters. Paddling in flood waters was harder than we thought. Some overhanging trees are dangerously close to the water level. The current was so fast that the minute we launch our boat on the water, we were swept towards the sharp bamboos at the river banks. I will be lying if I tell you that I wasn't scared, but fear is always part of an adventure, if there's no fear, then call it an outing. We paddled against the current most of the time to keep ourselves from the sharp branches at the river banks that can either puncture our boat or trap us under the tree's big branches. We were watching out for the current, the trees and of course for a possible encounter with the crocodilians. But, we were lucky to know later that because of the brown waters, crocodiles are known not to venture out of their burrows because of poor visibility. We enjoyed the whole exploration and came out of the river unharmed. We paddled a total of 16 kilometers and we were very exhausted. Our arms were burning and minds always alert that we didn't have the chance to take more photographs. |
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