Montfort Bat Sanctuary has been the home of a large colony of 2.3 million Rousette fruit bats since recorded history. They cover 75% of the ceilings and walls of their 245 ft (75 m)-long cave.[2] The sanctuary is located on Samal Island, about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) east of Davao City, Philippines. According to Guinness World Records, it is the largest single colony of this kind.

Fruit bats are an extremely popular type of bat that can also be called megabats. The bats originate from tropical regions of the Old World. They don't hibernate and since they dislike the cold, tropical regions suit them best. Fruit bats diet includes fruit and nectar. During their Circadian flight, fruit bats gather 1.5 to 3 times their body weight in food. Certain types of fruit bats have short jaws and powerful teeth to pierce into fruit. Others have long tongues and snouts to reach pollen and nectar. They can search up to 30 mi (48 km) to find food. Some types of fruit bats can have a 5 feet wing span, the largest of all bats. Other fruit bats only have a 6 centimeter long wing span. All but a few types of fruit bats are nocturnal. The ones occupying The Monfort Bat Sanctuary are nocturnal. These bats are quite rare because they are killed for food. Other predators include crows, rats, 10 ft (3.0 m)-long pythons, and lizards. Usually fruit bats can survive these creature attacks. Their major predators are feral dogs and cats. (via)

While categorizing my Discover Davao series, I was debating with myself if I should still include this place on the list. We only stayed in Davao City for a short time since we decided to go all out on Samal. And after much though, I decided to include it anyway. It's not everyday we get to try a restaurant that has such an exemplary view of Davao City. 

After a tiring visit at the Davao Crocodile Park, we wanted to pig out and regain our energy for we will be doing a lot of walking the next day. We asked around the Park and we were told that Jack's Ridge is a good place for dinner, with an awesome view of the city to boot. We hailed a cab and told him our destination. As any other place in Davao, they were kidding when they said it's just near the park, lol. At least in my standards. I think we were travelling for about 20minutes and traffic wasn't even heavy, haha. Can you imagine? Davao is indeed one massive hell of a place. 

I hate starting my blog posts with apologies, to be honest. I know I haven't been religiously posting as promised and I sure wish I had a good enough reason for it--but not really. I have been procrastinating and spending my energy on other things like eating way too much, lol. I've also been exploring new forms of sharing my adventures online. I'll make sure I'll update you guys if I choose to shift platforms! For now, I'm pretty sure I'm keeping this blog but I may have to lessen the posts since the other platform I'm testing right now also requires a lot of work. Still testing the waters but Ill keep you guys posted. For now, on to the blog post!

Our primary goal in visiting Davao was Samal Island since we were only there for about 4 days. Davao City was huge and we knew we wouldn't be able to fit everything in 4 days so we opted to spend most of our time at Samal Island instead. The boyfriend and I both agreed that not being able to explore the city is another reason for us to come back soon! So after staying for a day in Davao City, we decided we'll stay the night and make our way to Samal first thing in the morning. 

How To Get There

There are several ways to get to Samal Island. You can choose from the following options :