Welcome aboard

Today we are flying together from Cauayan City to Palanan.
In order to have an idea of the trip here is an old Google Maps I found in the attic.

We are now five minutes into the flight and just reaching 2000 feet and 80knots of ground speed. The plane, an old seven seater from Cessna is outputting her full 325 horsepower and will stay at full throttle until the last moment before putting the flaps out for landing.

The pilot announces once again the altitude, speed and itinerary over the radio. This information is used for synchronisation between small airplanes as the instrumentation cannot detect other aircrafts.

Another three minutes and we are now flying over the rural area situated before the mountains of the Sierra Madre. We can see how the cement roads become dirt tracks and how the shapes of the fields show the manual agriculture system. In comparison, the fields around Cauayan are three to four times bigger.

Looking at the picture after shooting it, I am impressed by the capacity of the camera to see through the distant haze. One of the few cases where the human eye sees less details.

Here we are, the mountains. This formation makes the creation of roads difficult. A project exists since ten years, with construction supposed to start in five. This represents the safeguard of many cultural aspect of life in Palanan and at the same time the distant dream of a better integration with the rest of society, cheaper goods, better medical system and hopefully an ATM.

Entering the Sierra Madre. Each valley is here filled by a river. The mountain chain provides seventy percent of the water supply for the Luzon Island.

After slight turbulence we arrive to the other side. A band of land only about five miles wide. The plane is now heading north and on the right side appears Didian. Situated in the middle of the primary forest otherwise called jungle, where seven Agta camps exist. Also it is here easy to witness the influence of the non-Agta farming activity slowly replacing the forest by fields, mainly rice and corn.

At the point of convergence of the two rivers is situated the Agta Camp of Dipagsanghan, can you spot it?

Answer of last question. This huge beautiful tree at the North of the camp marks quite a spiritual place as a few tombs are situated at his feet.

Thirty short minutes have now passed since our departure and the plane is lowering from the previous 4000 feet. Speed is a bit over 120knots and soon the town is here.

Here the fields cover most the ground surface and right after the hills is the Ocean. Notice how the middle third of the landing strip is made of bare ground and full of potholes. 

When in town we are staying in the only two stories house close to the tarmac. From the terrace, I like to watch the plane land and take-off two to five time a day to bring people and cargo from 'mainland'.

We are about to reach our destination. I hope you had a good trip and enjoyed the view from up there.

As for us, this as our 23rd flight of the year. Seven more before coming home in December.

A company as recently starting using this massive 19 seater plane to deserve the city. The state of the tarmac became a real danger so the cementing of the rest of the landing strip has now started and should take about 3 months.

With love,

Wasabi.