By Sophia Bain

Page 3

My conclusion is, as I began back on the forest pathway, that it will take an open-minded, adventurous foreigner to assume responsibility for this piece of heaven. Someone who can think out of the box. I collect some cuttlebones for my parrots - which I guess are from some sort of sealife. A weaving, crisscrossing trail of a monitor lizard’s tail and its double rows of footprints marks the otherwise tide-smoothed surface of the blinding white coral sands. These monitors hide by day in between large rocks up on the hill and come out at night to hunt smaller lizards, crabs, and mice. I came upon a big one once, but it was petrified and ran off.

The island has many birds and is home to the rare Philippine eagle. I noted several species of butterflies, dragonflies, bumblebees, bats, red flowering coral trees, an unidentified lavender flowering tree, the harmless Pacific boa. As far as I know, there are no poisonous snakes, scorpions or insects. The island feels quite benign, actually. The sun can get hot since this is not far from the equator but in the shade the cooling sea breezes are quite refreshing.

I decide to try and circle the island by the shore, making it to the “lost” caves in the northeast peninsula of towering rock “blades,” and around to another big beach adjacent to the massive rock “turtle’s head,” around which is too much for me to negotiate with giant boulders at the bottom of cliffs over 100 feet high. Climbing the steep hillside, I reach the saddle meadowland between the big 300 foot hill and the lesser 200 foot hill. This could be a nice building site, being a couple acres flat area just above the little valley down below, near the owner’s cottage.

Returning to the well, I take a quick shower by bucket, and retire to tell tales of my explorations to my diary. I found several hidden smaller beaches with rock spires off the shore, with holes through their center like needles. I named these islets the “Needle Rocks.” There are pieces of red, orange, and blue coral here and there. The caves glowed red from the agate’s deep color, and reflected in the tidal pools, it was a strange effect. On the rear of the second stone tower is a slope covered with one or two inch square chips of marble, breaking off and sliding down from the rocks above. There is certainly plenty of good building stone here.

There are numerous rocks and islets surrounding the main island, which provide roosts for birds and create fascinating wave and tide action. The reef-protected lagoon makes a great anchorage for shallow draft boats such as catamarans or the local spiderboats. There are fifty mature coconut trees, many having been cut down by passing fishermen in years past, but now I have planted many new ones. There are no sandflies or gnats- no bug problem at any time of the year, wet or dry season. The rains start in May and last into December, and sometimes in April the ocean is as calm as glass.

Construction might have been a bigger challenge was it not for the modest Palawan freighter that passes by each week stopping at minor ports on the way to Puerto Princessa. This freighter will sidetrack to Dumunpalit and offload supplies for construction at a very reasonable rate, direct from Manila. Bamboo walls in a roll are called siwali and are very inexpensive for making cottages; siwali is available in Coron.

Dumunpalit, I say to myself, is the refuge I have been searching for all these years- all across the good old USA, down to the Caribbean islands, including Grenada, Trinidad, Tobago, and on to the Fiji archipelago and other parts of the south Pacific. Dumunpalit was the culmination of a 7 year journey: a natural, pristine environment with taxes less than a $100 a year. An explorer’s paradise, hiker’s fantasy, diver’s dream, swimmer’s delight, a soul’s home.

But how long could I live in total separation from the rest of the planet? Would I miss the cities, masses of people, cars, stores, internet? Internet? That, I learned, was very economically reasonable through several satellite-served providers in the Philippines, so with a solar photovoltaic power arrangement and a satellite dish, I could check on the outside world whenever I wanted to. Just to make sure all of that out there was still there, was not getting any better since I left it, and that which I managed to escape.

But then I remember… I need a bigger place for my cows and orchards. And that’s why I must sell Dumunpalit, since if I can’t be here to care for this very special remnant of some prehistoric era, then someone else who was qualified should. After all, how can I be in two places at once? The 300 acres I recently purchased on a Central American Pacific island with its mile long beach, rainforests, iguanas, turtle breeding grounds, running streams, and hilltop housesite with killer views, are waiting for me. And there’s plenty of pasture for my Jersey/Cebu cross breeding program and self sufficiency goals on my part of this new island.

But that’s another story.

Filed under: Islanders