Little miss piggy

When travelling  through the Philippines there is the small problem of 7,000 odd dotted islands to deal with.  As skilled dirt bike riders we are, we don't have the skill to ride on water yet,  thus there is the need to use boat transport to get to our destination.

So far we have been on a damn loat of boats,  as we all know these boats are not your stock standard boats we have back in Australia.  These boats in the Philippines range from mega small outriggers to large-ish outriggers,  put simply they look like a home made boat your dad would build in the back yard.

The challenge of getting a dirt bikes onto a small outrigger is a sight to be seen, skill and strength is needed for this task which none of us seem to have.  Hence the reason I have great photos of the local men handling the bikes with ease.

These tough men will get one bike between 2,  pick it up and carry on to the boat with flip flops, down stairs and over the plank on to the boat. To paint you a picture this task would take all 6 of us to do the same thing (I honestly don't think we could do it).  The best part is that they charge the cost of a large coffee back home to move all 6 bikes. Let's just say coffee all round at the ports.

Here we are at this very remote port on the outskirts of Masbate,  not a white person in sight (we have not seen a white person in days).

The bikes have been loaded on,  now we take our spot on the boat under the shade of a tarp on the roof of the boat.  The boat is packed with 25 pigs (pigs are strapped to the bamboo on the outside of the boat) ,  enough Philippino locals to fill a small town.  It's a tight fit but we love it,  we have 3 hours in this spot.  The pigs are squirming loudly and the smell of their shit is a bit on the nose...



How do I explain this one to customs on the way home,  looks like I will be ticking the box about animal contact!

Blog update (next day)

The boat ride ended up taking us 7 hours,  it was an epic long trip I will not forget.  We had a small piggy emergency half way through our boat trip.  Little miss piggy busted free from the knots and jumped overboard in to the sea. Yep pigs can swim!!  So all hands on deck to save little miss piggy,  a local lad jumped in to the sea and tied a rope around the beast,  dragged her back to the boat and pulled her up by her ears.  We saved little miss piggy.

Click here for the sound  little miss piggy really makes,  we  had 7 hours of this: http://youtu.be/eNZosaCwH6k