Campo Cuatro: River Trekking and Bouldering

Cebu may not be blessed with high altitude mountains but what it lacks in elevation it compensates in countless activities that outdoor enthusiasts will truly enjoy. Activities that you can do in Cebu include island hopping in the Mactan islets, mountain biking in the Talamban and Lahug hills, and spelunking in caves. You can also do river trekking and hiking in the remote mountain barangays. Aside from all these activities, you can also do bouldering, particularly in Campo Cuatro. We were fortunate to experience this activity last January 27.

View from the top. Manipis Road in the background.

As a little background, Campo Cuatro is a Talisay barangay that can be accessed only through Manipis road, another route going to Toledo aside from the Naga Uling road. The barangay is actually on the banks of the Mananga River and easily recognizable because of the steel bridge that commuters have to pass before entering it. Since there are only few public vehicles on the Manipis route, going there would either be through the irregular Jaclupan multicabs or ride the habal-habal for 15 pesos. Since we don't want to delay our trek, we opted to go to Campo Cuatro by riding the habal-habal after buying our lunch at Tabunok public market.

We arrived at Campo Cuatro past 11 am and immediately resumed our trek. Before reaching the rocky portion of the river, you have to do river trekking upriver for about 10 minutes. There is almost no physical effort on this part yet because the river bed is flat and water is only ankle-deep. Few minutes upriver, you'll get to a rocky portion on your right. This will be the part of the river where you have to climb the rocks. Up the rocks we go. Equipped with persistence, patience and the help of a rope, we reached the foot of a waterfall after an hour of navigating through big rocks. Since it was past 12, we decided to take a break and eat our lunch there.

Before eating, we decided to take a short dip in the waterfall basin and got back up to eat our lunch. After few minutes of chatting, we decided to move forward. The next part was a little challenging. There was barely a place to step on so as a precaution we have to prepare the rope in case the worse happens, A small mistake can make you fall 15 feet below the ledge. On top of that, it began to drizzle so it made the rocks slippery, making it more difficult to climb up.

We climbed more rocks as we began looking for trails back to civilization. The rocks got bigger and bigger and there was a even a part where we have to navigate tree roots just to get higher. After that, we did river trekking again until we came upon a trail – going back to the barangay. We followed the trail and we made our way back to the center of Campo Cuatro. We were already back in Tabunok at about 3 PM.

Looking back at our experience, we got to enjoy the thrill, the physical demand and most of all we, outdoor enthusiasts, get to do what we love – and that is to experience what nature has to offer. Indeed, we enjoyed one of the best things that Cebu has got to offer for only 30 pesos.