Hikes To Date

Lion’s Head - full moon

Lion’s Head is a small peak in the middle of town that commands a nice view of the city and ocean while only taking about 45 minutes to climb. A group of us joined the rest of the horde (probably 200+ on top) and hiked up for the sunset over the ocean. Ten minutes later applause broke out as the full moon rose over the mountains beyond False Bay. Bright orange it looked almost the same as the sun had just as it disappeared only it continued to grow. After the better part of a bottle of wine (you can’t watch the sunset and moon rise without some wine) we headed down the chains and ladders in the dark. Much harder than the hike up.

Table Mountain – Platteklip Gorge

This gorge cuts through the middle of the face of the mountain and is a stairmaster hike much like the Grouse Grind except there are no trees so the view of the city is always visible. We started with five but two (Kristen and Mari) decided to head down early and the rest of us (Whitney, Caro and I) reached the summit minutes before the sun set. This was another exceptional view point with a sketchy climb down in the dark; thank you Petzl headlamp yet again. Wandering around Table Mountain in the dark is not such a great idea so we will try and avoid too much of that in the future: muggers here have apparently learned how to hike.

Boomslang Cave

Pronounced Bwmslung, meaning tree snake, this cave is the reward for a 45 minute hike in the blazing sun and goes 160m right through the mountain. The geography is all sandstone so the floor of the cave is covered in sand – nice initially but increasingly hard on the knees and elbows. The heights of the caves range from 30m with bats to maybe 0.5m with some crickets and spiders. Wiggling through on my stomach using only my toes to propel me means that when I showered afterwards I discovered sand in places that I didn’t even know existed. I was taken up there by a couple of locals, one of whom was a zoologist studying African Wild Dogs on the border of South Africa and Botswana. She made for the best sort of guide to have.

Table Mountain – Skeleton Gorge, MacLear’s Beacon, Platteklip Gorge

Five of us (Harold, Vegard, Kias and Diane) started in the botanical gardens (Kirstenbosch) and headed up a steep trail that, thankfully, was on the rainy side of the mountain and shaded by trees. It blows my mind that one can drive all the way around the base of this mountain. With childish wonder we stopped to watch a species of wasp drag a spider it had killed or stunned (easily four times as large as the wasp) quite the distance down the trail, presumably back to its nest to lay eggs in. We had several sightings of the Pride of Table Mountain, a flower that only grows on the slopes of Table Mountain and of the King Pretoa (one variety of the national flower and unfortunate proposed name of the rugby team). At the top of the gorge we headed north to MacLear’s Beacon, the highest point on Table Mountain (1087m) before continuing to our descent down Platteklip Gorge. I received a text message from some friends in the Mountain and Ski club (don’t ask where they ski, it doesn’t happen very often), and they were up Lion’s head for the sunset so I got our cab driver to drop me off at the base before bringing the other home and I raced up the mountain to catch the sunset. The last 15 minutes were pretty tough as I really hit a wall so when I reached the top I remembered to eat the rest of my lunch. Way to be a good diabetic! Caught a ride back in a small VW with eight of us crammed in it and discussed Zimbabwe politics – always an easy source of irate rants.