urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

The partner and I have longed for a chance to go camping yet again. It has been N months since our last one in Sirao Peak and we were itching to go some place else if only to get away from our busy work schedules.

But alas, reality comes up and you have to deal with long hours at the office, erratic work schedules, budget constraints and, just this weekend, the weather. We were raring to go last Saturday and had even already packed up the night before. Except that the skies were all gloomy and gray that Saturday morning and it felt like Senyang was just getting ready to lash out its fury any time.

We would never settle for experience over safety – not especially when there is a toddler involved. So, we stayed at home to, well, catch a lot of well-deserved sleep.

But then again, the adventure itch just keeps coming back. And when you have a brand-new-ish (just recently arrived in the Philippines but bought second from the US) backpack baby carrier, any parent would definitely not want to miss out the chance to try it out. But we’ll talk on the carrier and the shipping stories in another post.

The partner and I agreed to take a walk, off to his mother’s house, which is just a five-minute drive from my parents’ house where we are staying. It’s about a 30-minute power walk but when you have a 10-kg toddler inside a 3kg backpack and a partner who very rarely does exercise (ahem I guess that’s me), you may have to double that time.

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

According to Google Maps, we walked around 3.5km at around 8am in the morning and another 3km on our way home at 11am. It was hot. And I was wearing a tank top. Aack! No wonder people kept staring at me – I was as red as a ripe tomato!

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

So there. All I really wanted was to share our photos. I had some trigger happy spurts while the partner was sweating buckets. Haha! I did have a chance to carry the backpack on the way down the bridge though. Oh yeah, did I mention that this day hike involved crossing an 864-meter bridge without shade along the way? We are both not used to wearing sunblock at all but now I’m rethinking my views on that.

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

But I had so many injuries (that already came up at the beginning of the walk) that the partner pitied me and decided to carry the backpack all the way home. I had blisters and an aching foot – that’s kind of what you get when you don’t know how to walk properly and you don’t wear socks or adjust the shoes that you are just trying to break in (the review deserves a separate post). Maybe that was just an excuse from me. The daughter was already sleeping in her pack halfway our walk home.

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

urban hiking with a toddler, cebu

On the other hand, I felt so accomplished that day, I decided to do about a week’s worth of laundry for three people all by myself. And while I used the washing machine to get the cleaning done, the rinsing had to be done manually and by the end of the day, my back was burning. And I only realized my legs had gone sore the next day.

No pain, no gain, they say. And we didn’t get to spend a dime for this getaway – hooray!

Did you guys get anywhere (free!) over the weekend? Do share!

XX