Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Naga City, CamSur to Daet, CamNorte: Refreshingly Green Roadtrip

Green Road Trip from Naga City to Daet 
The Clean and Verdant Highways of “Duwang” Camarines


I was invited to speak for lunch time 
round table medical  forum for the
Camarines Norte Medical Society,



…so we left a 9AM in Naga City
for my 12 noon talk in  Daet.


 I got my camera ready to document this road
trip  as someone would be driving for me.



 We passed the towns of Milaor,


San Fernando,



 Pamplona,




Libmanan,







 …and had a toilet stop in Petron Sipocot.



This gas station is a very ideal stop for  those 
traveling south as it is located just before the 
Andaya Highway that leads  to Manila,

^^^ The road to the left leads to Quirino Highway while the one
 on the right leads to Sipocot Centro and Daet Camarines Norte

.... and also before Sipocot Town
Center that leads to Camarines Norte.




 We also stopped  a 3N Bakery in Sipocot,






...a very popular Bicolano homegrown bakery,
known for its delicious and Iconic Toasted Siopao.


 Sipocot is the last town in CamSur that
lies at the edge of Camarines Norte,




 …and the gateway to the Bicol National Park.





Bicol National Park is in a sad state as it 
is not as lush as it was in my childhood,





…years of abuse and illegal logging has alarmingly 
and significantly depleted the park’s forest cover,





…but what remained of this once virgin forest 
is still breathtakingly green and beautiful.





Well paved ribbon- like highways,






 … well manicured, verdant
grass on the roadside,






 …a backdrop of forest so green, with trees
whose branches are reaching up to the sky.





 This strip of highway is one of the few places in the
 Philippines where you can drive with your  car window open,




... and enjoy the indescribable feeling
 of fresh, crisp air blowing on your face.






The Bicol National Park also serves as the
border between the two Camarines Provinces.






Once in Camarines Norte, one should watch out
for the Mother Tree marker as it is where the
oldest and the biggest tree of the forest is found,




…and the “Bitukang Manok” that literally means   
chicken intestines, a scenic zig- zag road,









… that leads to the town of Basud,
the very first town of Camarines Norte.






The town of Basud is where the solitary
hill  is located that looked like a verdant
version of Bohol’s famous chocolate hills,
transported in this past of the world.



The town leads to the very
progressive town of Daet. 




Daet is a boom town in Bicol and
signs of progress are everywhere.





With all the development that this
capital town is experiencing, one would
 wonder why it has not become a city yet.





Daet is also the site of the very first and the oldest
 monument in the Philippines dedicated to Jose Rizal;



We arrived at my lecture venue
at 11:30 AM, just in time that
the participants started arriving,







…and the 30 minutes free time before
my lecture gave me a little more time
take photos on of Terrace Grill .




This restaurant located in a dining complex
right in front of a huge shopping mall 



 
...reflects the impressive economic growth of
 this booming capital town of Camarines Norte.

2 comments:

  1. how long will it take from naga city cam.sur to daet cam.norte?

    ReplyDelete