By Romy Sabaldan
Davao Beat

SORRY GIRLS, Outland Adventure will soon end up having a Safety Officer who will no longer be a bachelor.

He had just settled back home to see his mother while I was in Manila alone.

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Traveling back home and halfway through the airspace of Masbate as announced by the pilot, I just felt that Flight 809 is soaring doubly faster as though the angels in the white floppy blue yonder have gathered the thick clouds to make as a highway in the sky.

This silent type of an obedient son only talks to me when there is something intimate and very important that he would want discussed.

One morning, several weeks later after deciding to settle back home, he approached me with a naughty smile.

This is the intro, "Pa Kuya Matt and Tata has already promoted me as director of the Xcelerator Extreme Speed program."

Oooh, I retorted back. He said, "Actually the Xcelerator is a separate entity from Outland Adventure which is a foundation."

Unya, I said. He answered back, seriously this time.

I said Haaaah!!

To me, it was some news more intense than FEU's Rachel Anne Daquis losing a seat in the finals of the volleyball championship versus Aiza Maizo of UST.

I immediately look towards heaven for some quick answer and guidance and lo and behold, I saw a bird flying away.

She, who had captured the attention of this silent type of a lover boy, was once a varsity team player in volleyball at the Brokenshire and is now a registered nurse working at Matthew McNeil's Mercy Mission midwifery clinic at the poverty-stricken districts of Obrero and Agdao.

Going back to outdoor sports. The Xcelerator in the boondocks along Maa's diversion road is the pioneering zip wire facility in the Philippines brought up under strict international standards. From time to time, their safety attendants are having refresher courses from US Paramedics and American Ropes Course experts in rescue, safety and first aid.

Reputed to be the fastest in Asia, Outland Adventure also inspired the installation of a similar facility somewhere in Cebu as recently gleaned from a report by NBNs Lakbayin natin ang Magandang Pilipinas-LMP, a weekend travel and tourism television program of the League of Municipal Mayors of the Philippines.

The Cebuanos copied it from Davao City through Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, who frequents Outland Adventure with her whole family in tow for the exhilarating ride.

Helping install its camp-like facility are the engineers of the Davao Light and Power Company. Those familiar light green-colored treated posts indicate that the engineering is DLPC and the safety gears are American-Saxon.

Impressed by the facility, Durano has promised to convince President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to try the zip wire and help Mindanao promote physical fitness and sports tourism.

I have tried it myself and the sound of the French-made zip wire trolley is similar to that of a Rolls-Royce BAC One Eleven accelerating engine just before take-off. We have tried conquering our fear of heights there with a number of enthusiasts from Manila who told us that they have just arrived coming all the way directly from the airport to Maa.

Outland Adventure is a foundation established by corporate executives and well-meaning citizens of Davao lead by our adopted Dabawenyo Matthew McNeil, the London-schooled Hans Gaisano, AMS Soriano and the Rogers Family of Philadelphia, Davao Light and the great ropes course enthusiast, the late Al Aboitiz.

Circa 5000 B.C. You know why the great Hebrew liberator Moses failed to reach the Promised Land?

It is because the Xcelerator Zip Wire Extreme Speed was not yet invented during his time.

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