The Enchanted Mountain

by Radwa Jumalun (United Arab Emirates)

A leap into the unknown Philippines

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The Enchanted Mountain Mt. Kamamasam 1339 MASL considered as the highest peak in Nakar Quezon gives us the unexplainable feeling during the hike. This is one of the most memorable hiking experience that I would never forget. Its beauty gives you magical and enchanted scenery. I’m a huge fan of Harry Potter on that day I felt like I’m in the forbidden forest , dark forest on the grounds of Hogwarts where many weird, wonderful and highly dangerous creatures live. If you watch Harry Potter you may also think that the mossy Forest there it similar in the Forbidden Forest. Along the trail we got encounter with a lot of species like Millipede blue with black color we failed to capture its head, A Toad with color of the branch of tree it is similar to Poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) despite being very small some of these frogs only measure 15mm they have a secret weapon, a chemical on their skin. If you look closely in the picture you may see that it have a long hand for its defense mechanism. Tabanus bovinus simply as a giant fly according to Wikipedia it prefers bovine animals as the source of blood, although it may bite other kind of mammals as well. The insect is relatively large for a horse-fly, adults usually being 25-30 mm long. Like most other horseflies, its compound eyes are very colorful with stripe-like patterns. Its body and wings are mostly colored brownish gray. It is quite fast and an able flier, being capable of evading most attempts to swat it with ease. It bites humans infrequently, because of its preference of bovine animals, A Beetle the most common type of insect. They are everywhere. Some beetles can be confused with other kinds of insects, especially some true bugs. I cannot find what type of beetle it is. It has long antenna on the head with an orange body coat, but its body at the back compose of black and green cover, Phasmid at first we thought it was a stick mantis because they have similar features they are called leaf insects, leaf-bugs, walking leaves, or bug leaves. And lastly Forest Cockroach I thought cockroach can just be found in the house but I’m wrong hahahaha. I also spotted some kinds of flower for the first time. Our organizer identify it as Amorphophallus titanum but also known as Titan arum it can just be found in Sumatra ,Indonesia so this is a privilege to for me to encounter this kind of flower. ❤