Puting Bato on Samal

Just 2 km from the big island of Davao in Philippines, is the Samal island.

From the Davao ferry terminal, a 20 peso ($0.35) ticket is charged per person on the car ferry to head over to Samal and it is a short 15 minutes ride. The waters are calm and there are many huge ships anchored around the ferry terminal area.

Approaching the island, you can see that it is aptly named as the garden island because it is densely forested.

There are scooter rentals as well as the ubiquitous Bajaj auto-rickshaws imported from India to take you around this relatively small island. I found a Ricshaw and headed to the short hike to a mountain peak located on this island. The road was well paved and had dense trees on either side.

Soon the paved road led to very rough, unpaved road and the driver used all his skill to ensure the three wheeled rickshaw 🛺 did not topple over.

The hike was very steep and rocky.

However, it was not too long. Soon, and I came to a spot with beautiful vistas of the Samal and Davao islands, and the Mount Apo which is over 10,000 feet tall mountain on Davao.

The peak is on private land and there is an entrance fee for day use as well as overnight use. However, there was nobody to take the 30 peso fee today.

A couple of minutes walk and you can see the peak.

The summit is at about 530m or 1,755 feet altitude.

It is a short hike, has peaceful surroundings and provides beautiful views of the whole area.