Sometimes disappointment is the gateway to the discovery that "nature has a way of transforming our journey into the destination" - where comfort is found in the process itself.
I still could remember my mother's disappointment when we reached our destination, in one of the hidden rest houses of Tabuelan. 😅 I'm honestly torn between sharing it here or just deleting the pictures in my gallery, but in the end, as I scrolled through the pictures, I had a wonderful realization. Even in disappointing times, nature can wash our worries away and calm our minds.
Here's what happened (a chika)on our Wednesday walk.😄
A couple of weekends ago, we had some business to attend to at Tabuelan Port at 5 PM and onwards. The distance to this location posed a conflict with our family beach plans because the beach we wanted to visit was in the opposite direction of the port. While we could have still gone to the beach, it would have meant a long journey back to Tabuelan Port and the risk of being late for our appointment.
Since we had already planned our beach outing, and not wanting to disappoint the kids who were eagerly looking forward to it, we made the decision to search for a beach near Tabuelan Port instead. And here's the challenge that arose, we didn't have any ideas of a good beach near Tabuelan, however, thanks to Google we found one on the internet, a rest house with a beautiful shoreline. We checked the photos and we could tell that the place is nice and child friendly and for sure kids would absolutely love it.
It was almost lunchtime, and I could feel my stomach starting to growl (for sure I'm not the only one feeling hungry) but we were still on the road. Finding the place was a challenge as locals also were not familiar with the place. My mother started to grow impatient (well she is the most impatient in the family, hehe). However, I assured her that we were close and I also guaranteed her that the place would be worth the long journey and the hunger.
Finally, we located the road that led to the rest house, but to our surprise, we were informed that we couldn't bring our vehicle inside. It turned out to be private property, and vehicles were not allowed, which was definitely a red flag! This meant we had to embark on a one-kilometer trek to the beach, carrying all our belongings and food, including our kettle, grilling tools, a bucket of drinks, our bags, two camping chairs, and, of course, our toddlers!
We hadn't even started walking, but my father's nostrils had already widened. Haha. But still, I assured him that the hike would be well worth it, "While we are carrying our things?", he interrupted. Haha!
And so we offloaded our things and started our hike. There's no sign of the beach yet nor the rest house. But we were optimistic, I rather, that at the end of this walk the beautiful beach and the peaceful rest house awaited us.
We passed by lush greenery and coconut trees surrounding a pond. This sight somehow gave us hope that we were heading in the right direction. We kept walking. We could no longer wait to finally reach our destination, lay our things, cook our lunch, and enjoy a well-deserved relaxation!
But as we were nearing the location we saw a sign that said "Private Property, No Trespassing".
We were all shocked by the signage but at the back of my mind I convinced myself that the signage meant the Resthouse was private but if you were a guest of the resthouse of course you could get access to it.
I searched for another local to whom I could ask my question about the resthouse while my family's faces started to curl because of hunger and thinking that we were walking in the middle of the day!
Our shoulders dropped with disappointment when we learned that we could not get into the resthouse because the caretaker was not around. Huhu. I look at father and mother with a furrowed brow and an almost grimacing expression a display of a combination of disappointment, irritation, and hunger.😅
Everyone was disappointed and down, instead of giving up, I told them that since we were there already why not search for a public seashore where we could set our things and enjoy our lunch?
We pressed on with our walk and eventually reached a public seashore, situated along the beautiful Tañon Strait, a protected seascape.
I was surprised to see a label of "Tanon Strait" in this corner of Tabuelan. The Tanon Strait is a strait separating the island of Cebu and Negros and is the biggest marine protected area in the country.
We were silent for a while upon seeing the beach. The kids, on the other hand, couldn't contain their excitement and began cheering for the beach.
It was quite evident that this beach is seen by very few visitors. Not only was the shoreline relatively short, but everything appeared untouched; fallen leaves from the trees covered the sand, giving it a pristine and unspoiled quality.
The sea was a bit muddy at that time because of the strong winds yet in my imagination the sea's rich corals and vibrant marine habitat are all vivid.
We stayed there for a while filling our eyes with this unspoiled beauty before us while the kids were also playing in the sand. We forgot that we were hungry. Hehe. We just ate our snacks and decided not to cook our food in the seashore as our respect for its protected seascape.
After eating our snacks, we sat down there and had a short talk. I believe during this time, our minds our somehow calmed by the natural and stunning view. Nature is indeed amazing.
That's it for our walk which started with disappointment but turned out to be calming and relaxing, thanks to nature. Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoy it. I wish you all safe and well always.
Don't forget to smile often. 😊🤗😍
