Memories made under the stars at Lake Bensis

Hey there fellow Hivers!

After our day hike to the infamous Lake Bensis, as discussed in my previous post 'Lake Bensis: Why Some Places Should Remain Secret,' we couldn't contain our excitement when my hiking friends and I decided to camp near the lake. Some of them were not able to join us on our day hike to this lake, so they were excited to join the camping trip this time. However, after posting the photos online and after @iamcjestrada uploaded his vlog from our day hike, it sparked a lot of interest from people who wanted to go there – from hikers to curious locals who simply want to see it in real life.

This time, instead of hiking there, which could take a whole day, we opted for a chill and easy way to get there – by commuting.

There are different ways to reach Lake Bensis, depending on where you are coming from. However, since we are from Cebu City, we chose the nearest route, which is through the Tabunok Public Market of Talisay City. From there, we hailed a motorcycle taxi for two people, which cost around ₱150-200 per person at that time. The ride took roughly 30 to 45 minutes and passed through the Manipis road to Loay, Toledo City.

There are also different entrances to the lake, but the one we used is the same as the entrance we used during our day hike. It's marked by a church. There is also an entrance on the opposite side of the lake, where locals usually enter.

In the past, they only asked for donations of any amount, but now they have a fixed entrance fee of ₱10 for those who only want to do sightseeing, and a camping fee of ₱20 per tent for those who want to camp overnight with their own tents.

We arrived at the campsite almost at sundown and began pitching our tents while preparing our dinner. If I recall correctly, we were the only group camping there that day, so it was nice to have the campsite to ourselves. Initially, there were ten of us, including @iamcjestrada, @mariasalve, Shiela, James, John, Chiarra, Paul, An, and Shandy. However, two of our friends, @thestrollingmind and Ofelia, decided to join us and catch up later that day.

Dinnertime came, and of course, the team socialization wouldn't be complete without a drinking session. We went to sleep later that night with new memories from this camping trip.

The next day, we woke up early in the morning to have coffee and take some random photos around the lake.

We didn't waste any time and took a dip in the water. There's a bamboo raft available for rent, made by the local community that runs a Tilapia Farm on the lake. We swam a little further from the floating fish pen, as the water there smelled a bit fishy.

Swimming in the lake really creeped me out because of its dark green color that suggests great depth. I couldn't shake the feeling that something might be lurking beneath the water.

We don't really know for sure how deep it is. Since I'm scared of deep water, I only managed to swim near the shore, with the help of my neon green manually inflated life buoy, which took me a while to inflate and deflate. HAHA

We broke camp at almost noon as it got super hot at the campsite. And, of course, we had to take the mandatory group pictures as a memorabilia to look back on in the future when some of us might not be able to camp due to adulting life.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what the future holds. I mean, we're getting older, and sometimes adulting gets in the way. It's nice that we can still get together like this once or twice a year.

I guess that's it for now. Until my next outdoor and camping adventure.

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