Day 367: October 2, 2025 – Puerto Princesa, Philippines
The Underground River I wrote about in my previous post is part of a larger Palawan River National Park which includes a mangrove forest, several beaches and a zipline. We hit up all of them during our tour.
The guide who took us through the Sabang Mangrove Forest entertained us with a song about the beauty of the mangroves.
Mangrove snakes spend most of their time basking high up in tree branches but descend to the forest floor at night to hunt. This guy was hanging out in the tree as we passed by.
Our final activity in the park was a zipline. This is my 6th time ziplining (twice in Alaska, twice in Costa Rica, and once in Panama), and as far as zip lines go, this one was fairly tame. It’s one straight ride to the bottom, not a series of takeoffs and landings like some others. But what made it challenging was I first had to climb a mountain to get to it! Exaggerating just a bit, but it was a much steeper, longer climb than I was expecting. I made it though, with some huffing and puffing; I’m going to take that as a sign that I’m back to my pre-pneumonia fitness level.
Photo credit: Charley
The zipline route was a bit intimidating for me, because the entire route was over the waters of Sabang Bay. The picture below is not me, it’s someone who was ahead of me, I’m including it here to show the route. Rain clouds were coming in just as we were starting our zipping.
Photo credit: Silja
We arrived and departed in traditional Philippine boats called bangka. They have a wooden outrigger on each side made of bamboo that make the boats more stable.
5 responses to “My Sixth Zipline”
Hiking hint: if you are huffing and puffing, you are going too fast. Slow down. Take shorter steps – start with steps that are the length of your foot, and adjust from there. Try to slow down *before* you get to the huffing and puffing, because it is a lot easier to prevent than it is to recover from.
Yeah… That doesn’t look like the most fun Zipline but glad to hear you were healthy enough to climb that mountain! (lol) Takes a long time to get better. I broke 4 bones in my face and it been almost 4 months and my lip, gum, and cheek are still numb. I damaged the nerves . So I know how long it takes to get back to your previous self. So glad you are better! Love the monkeys!
Ouch!!
I tried to zipline.. I just couldn’t walk of the edge of the platform. I walked back down in shame.
Oh no, Shannon! Yeah, nothing like hurling yourself out into thin air, is there.