road trip 20070611 part II

after what seemed like a short while, we were soon passing a structure that most people refer to as the "radar." i've always found it curious - why would there be a need for a static-antenna radar installation on the tagaytay ridge? there was a sign, but again i was paying more attention to the road - glenn read it out as we passed. to wit: it was definitely a military installation, but instead of a radar, it was the home base(?) of a radio communications regiment or something.

and as we passed, the "special device" picked up a burst of communication. hmm...

before long, we were faced with a choice: calaca or nasugbu? we'd actually gone a bit past the calaca fork, but something about the nasugbu road gave me pause. it was under an arch, and beyond that was a lowered-pole arrangement (similar to railroad crossing barriers) that blocked onward progress. okay, calaca it is. also, at that point the notion of a goal destination finally crystallized: the calaca fork was off to the left (southwards). we might be able to get to the storied taal town itself if we went that way. now we'd find out if the signs to direct us that way existed...

now, just as we got on the road to calaca, on the other side was a sight that could, for all intents and purposes, be a harbinger of things to come: there was a 10-wheeler dump truck that was half off the road in a small ditch of some sort. it seemed to be "fresh," as there was no crowd of curious bystanders around it - or it may have been the fact that the truck had also broken an electric utility pole by the roadside, and the upper fragment thereof now lay on the top edges of the truck bed.

however, i quickly put "portents of doom" out of mind, and proceeded onward.

a long and winding road... :-)

two lanes of asphalt, twisting and turning through a sparsely populated, thickly greened area. it may have been anywhere from 15 to 20 kilometers long, with no turnoffs that i noticed, i was just having too much fun driving. not that quickly, though. with the ups and downs and twists, i rarely got past 3rd gear, and i don't remember the engine even making it to 3000rpm, so the average speed must have been in the high 40's (kph).

the low-ish speed was good, of course, given the number of turns and fairly blind ones at that.

all in all, i don't remember a better drive. most of my driving is actually long straight highway stuff, so this twisty stuff was a refreshing change.

and somewhere in the middle of it, the areas on either side of the road opened up, and there on the left was a castle perched on a hill some distance away. that was so remarkable that i slowed down and parked just off the road on a little level area of grass.

glenn got out and crossed the road to take pictures; i stayed in the car just then, thinking that i could take pictures with the borrowed-cam(tm) on the way back.

after a while, glenn came back and showed me the pictures he'd taken. interesting, and also for what was not visible (from this side of the road anyway).

there be a dragon here.

and off we went again.