#323 Storm on Biri

Your destiny meets you on the road you take to avoid it. (Sifu)

To be outdoors during a storm is scary enough, but to also be on an island surrounded by treacherous water? Having read many a traveler's account describing the wild & swirling sea around Biri island in Northern Samar, we elected to go on the calmest month of the year and hired the biggest boat money can buy. We patted ourselves on the back when we got there uneventfully. 

But on our last sunrise, a storm blew-in unexpectedly and surrounded us with exactly what we had sought to avoid: ominous clouds sending thunderous sheets of rain onto the raging sea below it. Quaking in our boots? And miss this spectacle against a fire-lit sky? Fat chance. We went to work. Enjoy.

(Pixel-peepers: The farther you stand, the bigger the picture you can see. In one shot, a raging storm on my left and a wall of rain just below it. On my right is a silhouette of Bel-At, one of the more iconic rock formations along Biri's northern coast. Look closely and you'll see ace photographer Noli Gabilo on its summit, exactly where you'd find a photographer of this caliber.)

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