Monkey River – Ulot River

Monkey River – Ulot River

I went with Joni of Trexplore into the interior of Samar to check out the possibility of setting up a kayak route for adventure travelers.

This is a pristine area in the Taft National Forest where very few tourists tread and the country is wild and free.

Joni organized a boat and we headed down the Ulot for a couple hours. It really helps to speak Waray-Waray if you are traveling the back country as there are people that really don’t care to have visitors around.

The main objective was to get information for setting up a 5 day trip to the coast, stopping along the way to do some caving and waterfall swimming.

It is good to make contact with barangay captains to get their permission upon entering and leaving remote areas as we would be their guests and want to follow local protocol.

The skill of these boatmen is amazing. There is some serious potential for kayaking in this area. It’s not extreme, but challenging.

These guys know what they are doing. Some of them gained their skills hauling illegally cut timber from the forests to the market.

It is troubling how much logging is going on in that National Forest.

I stopped to take a bath at this waterfall.

We arrived at a settlement where we plan to change boats on future journeys. The river flattens out at this point.

We stopped here to talk to the barangay captain.

If you like to get off the beaten track, Samar might be a possibility.

The photos on this page are by Joni.

Ulot River Samar