After Christmas we took the Montenegro fast boat to El Nido, Palawan. Our bikes lashed to the front of the boat with drivechains soaking up all the salt water delivered by the rough seas.

El Nido is a busy place, with manic tourists rushing everywhere, many trying to cram everything into a couple of days.

It’s a jarring change of pace for us so we find a bar with a roof terrace and watch the chaos below while we plot our escape.

Leaving as quickly as we arrived to ride the north of Palawan, we head in the opposite direction to the hectic main road we’ve been warned about.

Palawan provided us with some fun rides and great coffee.

The campsite we found near Nacpan beach for new year, led us to expect an almost deserted beach, lesson learned, the people of the Philippines never miss an opportunity for a fiesta.

  We cycled further north to Duli beach and found all the things we’d been looking for… 

Having returned to El Nido for another look at the corals we can confirm that New Year’s Day is definitely not the day to take a tour (our crew were clearly still exhausted from the previous night’s festivities).

Keeping off the manic concrete roads in 33 degree heat proved to be a challenge, particularly between San Vincente and Port Barton …so we chartered a boat, captained by a fellow cyclist.

We learn that cycling became very popular in the Philippines during the pandemic, now only the crazy and the truly dedicated remain.  Port Barton speed boat club could be spotted every sunset testing their home made one man ships… We can confirm that the jungle is massive.

Resting, stretching and staying hydrated are equally important in this heat, on average I think we are drinking 8-10 litres of water and as many coconuts as we can get our hands on each day.

That’s it for Palawan, next stop Cebu…