Nagsasa Cove: Getting Far Away In A Distant Place

Nagsasa Cove is about one hour away from the shores of Pundaquit, Zamabales. On your way to Nagsasa Cove you will be passing by Anawangin and Talisayin coves which has amazing beauty as well.

The route to Nagsasa gets quite bumpy on some parts of the sea and I am impressed that the outrigger operators practices safety measures when transporting passengers.

You’ll see different rock formations with cliffs facing the sea. As you would notice while travelling most of the coastline of these coves are rough jagged rock and if Mount Pinatubo did not erupt these wonderful beach at these coves would not exist.

As for our group we were picked up by our boat from Anawangin as we traversed Mt. Pundaquit and it took us about more or less 30 minutes.

Top 5 Reasons Why Choose Nagsasa Cove

For me Nagsasa Cove would be the best of all three coves for the following

1. Wider beach. Nagsasa’s Lahar Sand is spread along the coast line of the cove which is much longer than Anawangin

2. Majestic View of the mountains. Aside from the pine tree background of the beach Nagsasa also features amazing mountains.

3. The lake. There’s a small lake that leads to a river (I guess) where anyone who’s afraid to go to the sea can just swim.

4. Less crowded. Fewer people go to Nagsasa Cove compared to the more popular Anawangin Cove may be because it is more publicized.

5. More photo ops location! =) plus the cove’s mouth is amazing at sunset!

As soon as we touched ground some of us inspected the camping area and some opted to stay and secure our belongings. Once we have confirmed our camping lot we fixed our things and put up our tents.

This is the first time that I am camping as well and I would have to say that I didn’t expect it to be this fun.  Well right after our tents are setup we decided to eat. Actually it seemed like we forgot that we haven’t ate anything yet as we were so excited to set up camp and explore the cove.

After eating our very late lunch we went ahead and explored the beach. But most of us being camera addicts chose to watch the sun as it sets.

I was chasing the sun set with my camera to capture as it sets on a day of so many firsts in my life. But I just keep on getting mesmerized by the beauty of the setting sun.

View the complete set of photos HERE

There is no electricity in Nagsasa Cove so we cooked our food campers style when it was dark (I know it was a bad decision) but we had lots of fun cooking food every one was helping out.

Socials would probably be the best part in camping. We got to know each other a lot better and told stories both scary and funny ones.

Unlike Manila where there are millions of bulbs lit around you, you can see the sky teeming  with stars. So we watched the star filled sky while talking almost about anything.

The Morning After

I woke up first in our group around 0530H it was dark still and the first thing that came into my mind was to shoot the sunrise. I quickly grabbed my things and setup at the side of the cove.

Unfortunately it was not that grandiose as it was when the sun set. Since it is a cove we were surrounded by mountains that hindered the view of the Sun rising (not that I am complaining).

It was low tide that morning and I could see more rocks with small shellfishes growing on it. The light coming from the Sun was still soft which is perfect for photographs as it doesn’t give the picture a very strong or too sharp atmosphere, so I walked around and took several photos of what’s happening.

 

 

Soon every one was awake already and just like me what they saw was another photo op =) I joined the more adventurous Elal and Byron as they climbed the rocks and mountain side just to get a good vantage point of the whole cove.

We cooked breakfast and ran to the beach and lake afterwards. Initially our plan was to delay our trip to Capones Island for just about an hour and leave by around 1030H. But we never thought that we’d have so much fun in the water.

Nagsasa’s water is very conducive to swimming as it doesn’t get too deep even if you are far from the shore. But you would also need to practice caution since these coves are not natural beaches, there may be a sudden drop somewhere there where the lahar stopped rolling in the deep (Adele??? lolz)

One great thing about going to the coves of Zambales as my friend Cai said it, it seems like we are so far away yet we are just a few hours away from Manila.

After swimming we freshened up and break camp on to our next destination Capones Island!