Liki Spring: Discovering a New Gem

I turned left towards the long lonely road which connects the towns of Borbon and Tabuelan. I don’t know why I did exactly, as my original plan was to head straight to the City of Bogo and look for new things to feature. But just like most of my travels, I ended up NOT doing the things which were in my original plan card. What else is new? 🙂

So there I was, moving quietly towards Tabuelan, when I saw a road-side sign which said “Liki Spring.” Obviously, you know what happened next. Of course I hit the brakes to investigate. Based on the welcome board just below the sign, I was in Sitio Liki, a small community in Barangay Tabunok, in the town of Tabuelan. The sign didn’t indicate how far the spring was from the road. But you know how I deal with these kind of things, right? So, despite the amount of gas in the tank (less than 20%,) I decided to investigate further. And I’m glad I did.

The small green sign is easy to miss. So you have to be hawk-eyed as you move closer to the town center.

The small dirt road was a bit tricky. But of course, there’s (almost) nothing you can’t do with a Honda XRM 125. My bike Gotham was awesome, as expected. 🙂

15 minutes later, I still couldn’t find the spring. And the road was going further and my gas tank was at 15%. Not good!

A few minutes later, I reached the end of the road. Luckily, a local man was feeding his chickens when I arrived. I asked him if he knew where the spring was. He was very polite and friendly and he told me in detail where the spring was located. He said that it was basically close to the main road. (And here I was moving further away from it.) He told me to look for the ‘ulingan’ or the place where charcoal is made.

So I thanked him for his great help, turned around, and drove slowly towards the main road. I had to be very careful about my speed as my tank was running dangerously low and I wasn’t sure if I had enough to make it to the town center.

Fortunately, several more minutes later, I saw a guy carrying on his back a big sack of charcoal. It could only mean one thing. I was close! I asked him if he knew where the spring was and he readily pointed towards a small walkway going down the hill. They are all so friendly here!

After parking my bike on the side of the road, I readied myself for a long and arduous trek.

A minute later, I was standing in front of the spring. Hehe.

Liki Spring is a small spring sitting at the end of a hill. It is frequented by the locals for various reasons. People obviously take a bath here and even wash their clothes. And of course, the spring is perfect for early morning dips or late afternoon swimming.

I was very lucky that no one else was around when I arrived. I didn’t want to pass up on this wonderful chance. So, I immediately changed into my swimming shorts. In no time, I was swimming in Liki Spring’s cool and very relaxing natural pool. The feeling was lovely!

Several minutes later, a mother and her daughter arrived and started washing clothes at the far end of the pool. They were followed by a dude who was carrying a big gallon of water. Apparently, locals also get their drinking water from the spring.

Despite the presence of locals, I didn’t get out of the water. I know they don’t get to see a lot of visitors in these parts as the area hasn’t been developed commercially. They were probably wondering who I was. I continued swimming, anyways. Hehe.