This is actually a re-post. I’ve written it eight years ago in one of our trips to a favorite place….Caleruega. I suddenly miss it. Saw the photos on my links at Facebook. I have written a lot about this place, posted so many pictures back in 2010.
You might ask, what am I doing at 4:50am? I am outside our cottage, sitting on a wooden chair watching the night unfolds into a bright new day. Lovell calls it The Bench. Everything is so quiet but the sound of some nocturnal creatures slowly leaving their hiding place for another hunt. Brrr…..the nippy air makes you long to put on an extra set of clothing but I left my jacket inside the car and I don’t want to go up just to get it. So I am here, using my blanket as a shield from the cold, watching the stars in the night sky. Silly, you might say, but I am counting them one by one, at least those which are visible to the naked eyes. Some are brighter than the others, some are just mere flickers. The quiet is so very much felt here. As they say, you can almost hear a pin drop. And your sense of hearing is so acute and alive with the sound of silence all around. 
The Batulao mountains look like dark crayon doodles showing the visible lines of gray where it meets the sky. This is the life! Once in a while, we must be allowed to experience it. I am humbled by all this and I think of the days when I whine over small things that to me now, seem superficial. A dot, a point, that’s all we are in this vast universe but it is really up to us to make that dot a small circle and that point a short line. And I am a thousand times grateful for having the chance to come back here. This is my litmus test to go on with life like it used to be, without fear of some dreaded ailment that put it on hold for the past several months. I would travel even at least this far, just to see how my body would react and how my immune system would cope. Yes, I passed with flying colors.
Hubby and I plan to go on trekking in a little while, reacquaint ourselves with the koi fish by the pond. I saw them briefly last night and they definitely have grown bigger. Oh yes, I wish to see the hanging bridge again . Who wouldn’t feel happy when you are reminded of some childhood memories, I remember those times I spent with my friends and young cousins when we were in grade school in the province. Back then, all we had to cross the river between our place and the town proper was an expanse of about forty meters long and around eighteen inches wide wooden bridge without handrails. Mind you, but we mastered the art of balancing ourselves and running on it to cross to the other side. That has been replaced by a concrete bridge of course, a single lane big enough to let a car pass without hitches. And the view coming from the other side is spectacular. Such exhilarating and carefree days of the young.
Munching on Fruity Rings without milk may be a bit weird. I never liked the taste of milk anyway. And I am preparing myself for the long trek outside. The refectory hall does not open until 7am. Their menu taste like home cooked meals, not really a gastronomical delight but I love it. And I love the idea too of just being served food without me bothering to cook.
I could see the clouds now, they are moving fast, like a line of soldiers marching. This is definitely beautiful! Hubby and I were one in thinking that we would make this a yearly journey, if possible.
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Dreams And Escapes 
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