Lomography

Mt. Malipunyo/Mt. Malarayat
written by zoe191 on September 6th, 2009 , 5 comments (4 votes)

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Mt Malipunyo is a mountain range which is also known as Mt. Malarayat. It is located in Lipa City, Batangas Province, in the Philippines.

What I like most about it is its forest. Tropical rain forests have rich biodiversity. In Mt. Malipunyo, the forest is cool and dense with many different kinds of plants and trees, including the notorious tropical wood nettles (from the genus Laportea, locally known as “lipa”). If you touch its leaves, you will feel a burning sensation on your skin which could last from several hours to several days, depending on the type of nettle. Fortunately for our group of five friends, plus a local guide, we did not touch any of the poisonous plants.

The trails are free of man-made rubbish. There are parts where you could get lost so it is always advisable to hire a local guide. Some parts are steep and you need to hold on to roots, vines or tree branches so you don’t lose your footing. It gets very slippery when it rains. It’s a good thing it didn’t rain when we were there. But being a tropical forest, the ground there is always moist. There are also some parts that are exposed to the sun, where there are no trees for shade, especially at the beginning of the climb.

There is a very clean spring water source about an hour or two after the jump off where you can refill your water bottles. It takes about 3 to 5 hours to hike to the summit, depending on your pace. If you don’t want to go camping, you can go up and down the mountain the same day.

Mt. Malipunyo actually has three peaks. At the summit where we stayed the night (Peak 3), there is room for only about 4 tents. But an alternative campsite is Peak 1 which is wider and flatter. Peak 2 does not have any space at all for camping.

http://www.pinoymountaineer.com/2007/10/mtmalipunyomalarayat.html