Bohol - Danao

Adventure is a personal word, taken in var ying doses and experienced differently by different people. a giant

rollercoaster for instance is heaven for my 12-year-old, but nightmarish for some people like me whose taste for adventure lately borders more on the vicarious. Our contributing writer, Chip Childers, has no such qualms taking on hellish rides at Bohol’s Danao Adventure Park, the latest word in thrill-per-minute rides.  Perched on the lip of a canyon, the park has two zip line cables hanging over the canyon floor,  river kayaking, trekking and tubing on Class 2 rapids below, rock climbing and rappelling on the side walls, canopy walks and tours.

Opening himself up to the adrenaline-boosting rides,  Childers found himself “screaming like a little girl,” plunging some 45 meters down a gorge,  strapped in parachute harness. The ride, aptly called “The Plunge”, is just one horror show in a series of horror rides at the park. Gentler adventure pursuits are also available, from interesting hiking via well-laid out paths, to dune buggy rides,  to a spot of dolphin watching.

From most accounts and if you are up to it, get-in-the-car-and- just-drive whimsys sometimes end up being all the more fun. You just have to be game enough to sometimes have that odd  night spent in unlikely places, which I do not recommend to families with kids in tow.

But whatever your age and stage in life, there is always  a spot of adventure for you if you open up to it.
This, coming from a wimp, who is contemplating giving up my wimpdom, and ending my daughter’s nagging to celebrate my near- old age birthday by joining “Mr Blue and Mr Yellow” in a tandem paraglide up the mountains near where we used  to live. Well, never say never.


I woke up from a deep sleep in the back of a van speeding like a comet towards Bohol’s dark and unappreciated inland center. Sunlight filtered through the window onto my face. It's been a few hours since we
left Peacock Garden Resort in Upper Laya, Baclayon at an ungodly 3:30am. As I sat up on my seat, first thing I caught sight of was Bohol's famous Chocolate Hills, perfect Hershey-colored domes. Our van weaved its way between these hills somewhere by Carmen, located in the center of Bohol, on the way to Danao Adventure Park. We are giving the touristy Chocolate Hills a miss this time in favor of wilder pursuits. The small town of Danao, about two hours northeast of Tagbilaran, has been creating a buzz among the more active types. Perched on a lip of a canyon, the park has two zip line cables hanging over the canyon floor, river kayaking/trekking and tubing on Class 2 rapids below, rock climbing and rappelling on the side walls, a cable car gondola for the mellow at heart, hiking trails, canopy walks and tours to historical sites, organic farms and local villages. Danao’s tourism concept, promoted as the impossible to forget tag ‘E.A.T. Danao’ (‘E’ for ecological, educational and extreme; ‘A’ for adventure; and ‘T’ for tour) is creative. If you don't get the acronym, eat is, well, an invitation to savor Bohol's local produce and attractions, with adventure ranking high on the list. My first adventure stop at the park is the Plunge, a type of ‘Canyon Swing’ nestled 200 meters above the ground in a 300 meter wide gorge. I had read about it in a few magazines but still couldn't wrap my head around it. To increase the surprise factor, I asked the staff at the park not to explain anything to me. The plunge involves inverting the jumper upside down, legs roped in, in a free fall of 45 meters, followed by a pendulum arc of 100 meters. It seemed a bit more dynamic than even the bungee jump, which I had tried years before in other countries. The lead in to the plunge was dramatic enough. There's the ritual of strapping me into a parachute body harness, marching me out to a ‘walk the plank’-style metal platform, and asking me to lay with my back to the canyon. The drawbridge device was slowly tilted down, drum trucking my inversed legs-up, my feet roped in securely, and then there was the clarion call of “bombs away", and I lurched into the abyss head first, squealing like a little girl in a horror house while swinging like a pendulum, seeing only the canyon bottom zipping by me at mach speed. After five to 10 swings, I came to a slow standstill, and was reeled back in.

Photo and Article Source : Inflight Magazine (Seair)