Santa Juliana – Camiling – 77 km
En route to the main road, I stopped at the depressing Death March Memorial. The
area was the final stage of the tragic Death March and concentration camp.
Japanese troops forced approximately 75,000 prisoners of war to make a sixty-
five-mile march to a prison camp. The exact figures are unknown, but thousands
died because of their captors’ brutality, who starved and beat the marchers and
bayoneted those too weak to walk. The marchers made the trek in intense heat.
Finally, survivors were taken by rail from San Fernando to prisoner-of-war camps.
At these camps, thousands more died from disease, mistreatment and starvation.
Today, they are remembered by a large memorial and a wall bearing the names of
those who died. War is such a sad thing.
The rest of the day was a pleasant and comfortable ride, arriving in Camiling in the
midday heat. With budget accommodation in Camiling, I had no reason to push on
as I wasn’t part of the Death March.
Camiling – Lucap – 88 km
Breakfast consisted of the usual Filipino breakfast of garlic rice, a fried egg and
Longanesa sausage. The road was flat, making it an enjoyable ride to where the
way met the coast at the Lingayen Gulf. At the junction, I turned left. Here I
veered in a westerly direction to the small village of Lucap, mainly because I’ve no
structure in my life and go wherever the mood takes me.
Lucap, gateway to 100 Islands National Park, was well organised, and it was easy
to locate a reasonably priced room at Sweet Honey’s. This family-run
establishment was accommodating and arranged a boat to take me to the islands.
On waking the next morning, the boatman was already waiting. Unknowingly, my
host packed lunch and water (all nicely in a cooler box - how sweet of them), and
all was set in place for a full day of island hopping.