Land Rover Festival: Drive Hard!

I left as a tourist. I returned as a veteran.

That about sums up my experience joining the 2013 Land Rover Festival: Mt. Pinatubo to Baler, Aurora last February 22 to 26. In fact I do feel like a veteran having flashbacks from time to time and once in a while wishing I could just drive out and do something similar all over again.

When my friends at LRPhils Motors Inc. asked if I could join the trip, I actually said yes more for the opportunity to see places I had never been before. I also figured it would be a good chance to meet people who might be able to give me ideas on a 1970’s Land Rover Series 3 pickup that I’m slowly restoring.

Under the vulture-like stare of club president Robbie Consunji, the organizing committee efficiently signed up, issued ID’s, and assigned participants to their respective vehicle numbers and teams. What I thought was just a formality turned out to be a strict and vital requirement for security and monitoring purposes. Once in, we were led into the sprawling Residencia in San Fernando, Pampanga that I thought was a resort but was actually the home of our host and hardcore Land Rover enthusiast, Rene Romero.

The first day was marked by a lot of rain but the prospect of sleeping in tents did not seem to bother foreign participants from Malaysia, Singapore etc. who flew in earlier via Clark. Sleeping in tents seemed so natural for them—which told me that these men and women were no ordinary tourists but full-on 4x4 enthusiasts.

Next morning we had a quick breakfast and soon we were driving out in various Land Rovers—all 40 plus of them. Being a novice I really could not call out all of the models, but I did keep hearing people talk about the 110, the 90, the series 3, the classic, the Discovery, an Evoque and a short one they nicknamed “The Red Dragon” with much respect.

The caravan headed towards Clark for the early morning launch of the hot air balloons. As always the balloons were a crowd-drawer and this year was once again better than last. But after the obligatory poses and photo ops, it became clear that the Rover nuts wanted to hit the lahar trails to Mt. Pinatubo. From Clark we drove to the tourism office in Barangay Sta. Juliana in Capas, Tarlac to register and then entered the Crow Valley Military reservation of the Philippine Air Force, which was our official entry point and start of an hour and a half (one-way) of absolute off-road fun and adventure to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo.

The drive on this occasion was ideal even for “newbies” because you spend a good 40 minutes driving mostly on flat terrain then dips, puddles and rolling areas until you begin to realize that you are driving in a gulley. The hills begin to close in and then you realize that they’re walls of lahar and you’re driving where rain and water cut a wide, wide path in between. Soon driving becomes more challenging crossing streams, avoiding huge boulders or being jacked up between front and rear tires.

As the level of difficulty increases, you take in the scenery that is absolutely awesome and reminds you of the movie The Hobbit and how it was so easy to imagine such movies being filmed in this location. Yes the scenery that stretched before us for an hour and a half was indeed impressive—but so were the vehicles. 

It’s impossible not to take notice of how comfortable and reassuring it is to be in vehicles that we were driving hard yet did not leave you battered and bruised. I don’t know if it was because I was in a Range Rover Series 3 that was obviously a high-end/high-comfort vehicle. But that in itself was an eye-opener for many participants because the vehicle matched up in terms of performance to everything the sports and hardcore Land Rovers did.

This however did not spare me from the side comments of the hardcore drivers who challenged me to drive the tougher models and called my assigned unit the “sissy car.” Later in the trip, I would exact revenge when with a “flick of a switch” the Series 3 would automatically switch into Low-4, while the hardcore drivers found themselves manually engaging and disengaging from 4x2 to 4x4. At that exact moment I would shout, “Mine—sissy car? Yours—stupid driver.”

This of course was all in fun but it does drive home the point that that the brand meets every expectation and challenge. Even the Evoque that Marc Soong drove demonstrated what luxury and performance was all about whether it was doing water crossings, going flat out fast on the lahar or crawling over rocks and gulley. The foreign drivers were very impressed that the Pinoys did not baby their high-end vehicles.

After the bumpy ride, we all disembarked, had packed lunches and then began the 30-minute slow trek up Pinatubo. Needless to say; it was well worth the effort as well as the long drive. The vast water-filled crater provides guests with an inspiring view that for some reason causes one to reflect on the magnificent work of God and nature.

For most travellers the trip back is always shorter, in our case it was probably doubly shorter as most of us drove twice as fast on the return to get to the nearest toilet or a nice meal after all the activity. The following morning we began the second half of the festival: our trip to Pantabangan Dam and Baler, Aurora.

In the dry season, a long line of Land Rovers driving along gravel roads and acacia trees in Pantabangan would remind you of movie scenes depicting expeditionary forces going through parts of Africa. Except for the vast dam, everything here is eerily dry until you get further in where you find trees that seem to be almost a hundred feet tall and just as old. Unfortunately, the old and original town of Pantabangan that dates back to the 1800’s was submerged when the dam was built. Todays’ Pantabangan dam is approximately only 35 years new.

After a quick lunch with Mayor Borja, the convoy immediately headed for the town of Maria Aurora and then Baler, Aurora. Along the way, the group met up with their local counterparts, the Aurora Off-Roaders, to give us a taste of local off-roading which involved driving “IN” the river. With the Gangnam-style anthem blaring in the background, we all watched as vehicles drove into the river, hoods submerged and simply feeling their way around. To show camaraderie, international off-roading competitor Larry Mendiola obliged the locals by driving “Red Dragon” further and more aggressively in the river. The performance explained why they brought home the 3rd place trophy in the Malaysian Rain Forest Challenge!

Soon we were once again on the road to meet up with Governor Bella Angara-Castillo of Aurora. The main group settled in at Ermita Hill where the campsite gave us a hilltop view of the bay. As people began to set up camp, I met a family of “glamorous campers” that slept in tents but were so organized and classy that they had Italian food, red wine, fruits and snacks as well as coffee. The rest of us broke off from the campers and headed for the beach where resorts and inns are now sprouting like mushrooms.

Aside from being a surfing alternative, Baler has a world-class Museo de Baler that was especially attractive to me since it houses two vintage cars associated with President Manuel L. Quezon that used to be at the Quezon City hall but has since been restored by the Vintage Car Club of the Philippines. The main activity for us in Baler was off-roading on the long strip of sandy beach where experienced drivers showed how to get out of a sandy pit, slalom driving and handling along the beach and just how to have fun with a “Rover.”

As a farewell treat our host prepared a simple lunch at the 600-year old Banyan tree in the tiny town of Maria Aurora. It was quite interesting to be able to walk under a tree that had space for five adults within its trunk area. After a couple of days driving hard, you’d think the group would drive home slow and easy. Fat chance, most of us were once again driving hard, driving fast but driving carefully because it’s really fun to drive a Land Rover in the Philippines!