Philippines 1995: Part 13

Note: this trip was made at Christmas 1995. In the time since then I'm sure much has changed so it may not be a great idea to treat this as a guide. Treat it as a memoir, which - give or take some editing - is exactly what it is.

So, the next day, right after breakfast we hired bikes - rickety and unreliable things with loose chains and suspect breaks - and set off. Given that the island only has one main road we didn't need maps and we knew from our enquiries at the bike shop that we would be able to get lunch along the way.
Along the length of Borocay runs a single partly tarmacced road and we cycled north along this through a sequence of small towns, villages really. Eventually the road turned into a series of quite steep ascents and descents along gravel tracks. On one of the descents I suddenly found myself struggling to hold the bike upright, simultaneously discovered that the brakes had failed, and then even more suddenly found myself sliding along on my side with the bike on top of me. Fortunately the damage was restricted to some minor grazing on my elbow and shoulder and bruised shins where the bike frame had hit me. After that we went more carefully.

Puka Shell Beach is at the extreme northern tip of Borocay and is fine if a little barren. We stayed there for a while but eventually went in search of the smaller better beach that the bike shop owner had told us about. This meant pushing the bikes back up the last steep hill that we had come down and then taking them down another even steeper one. We hoped that it would be worth it. It was. At the bottom was a small beach with boats drawn up on it and a tiny, separate offshore island called Naked Rock.
Instead of going to this though we looked for the flight of steps on the left that we had been told us led to a more beautiful and secluded beach. Once we found it, leaving the bikes behind we went up the uneven stone steps and then down the path to the other side. It did indeed lead to an idyllic and secluded cove where a basket and rope 'dumbwaiter' arrangement delivered drinks from the cliff top bar. We had a couple of glasses of fruit juice and then went exploring among the rocks and beach-combing for shells and coral. After a couple of hours we went back to the other beach (where we were relieved to find the bicycles still there) and over onto Naked Rock. We walked down to the far edge of it and stood on the top of a sheer face watching the water break dramatically against the rocks below. It was like being at the edge of the world.
Somehow the day had sneaked past us unnoticed and when we checked the time we discovered that we would just have time to get the bikes back to the shop before our hire expired. We pushed them up the first steep hill and then rode them back.