25 Jan 2009 – Table Mountain!

If it wasn’t clear from previous posts and pictures that Table Mountain is the fixture around which our lives in Cape Town revolve, then let this be the proof. Sunday we “conquered” the mountain in a five hour hike from Kirstenbosch Gardens to the highest peak (1078m). We’d intended to hike during the morning and afternoon, and picnic in the gardens before an evening music concert. But when we arrived at 10:30 that morning, the concert tickets had sold out. (A recurring theme?)

So we began the climb a little after 11:00, expecting to do a 3.5hr loop that took us across the Table on a contour path, then back down to the gardens. None of us had purchased a map or guidebook of the mountain trails, but several had done some research online or in guides that we’d passed in book stores. We knew we had to take Skeleton Gorge, at first, so we followed the garden path to the base of the mountain, and started the climb.

At first the path cut through a wiry forest, dense with leafy trees wrapped in vines (some of which swung by the paths and could support a person playing Tarzan). The angle was significant, but the trail was “easy access”, with well-maintained steps cut into the packed dirt. We walked for about fifteen minutes, but with the heat of midday, we all had a healthy sheen by the time we stopped for water. For the next hour, we split up along the trail, which began to rise much more sharply up the rocky mountainside. We were still encased in dense trees as we trudged upwards in zigzags.

The dirt and sweat that coated my hands were hardly conducive to picture-taking, but I couldn’t put the camera away. It wasn’t until we reached a stretch so steep that it required a series of wooden ladders that I was forced to stow the bulky Nikon in my backpack. The trees began to thin as we hit a boulder-strewn gorge, where we joined several other groups of hikers climbing hand and foot between rocks four times our size. Water trickled down underfoot, making the climb a bit precarious, but when we reached the top of the channel, we had our first clear view off the mountainside.

From there the trail wove through a lush crevice between two peaks, the path lined with ferns and bright summer greens. We were awestruck by the sheer cliffs to our right and left, the hazy city skyline far below us, and the sloping trail ahead. I took far too many pictures.

The twelve of us who’d begun the hike met up at the intersection of two trails, having finished the ascent to the “low end” of the Table. We’d climbed most of its 705m altitude from Kirstenbosch, and we were ready for some food and water. While we ate, we considered our options as we hunched over a metal map stand and determined the distance to the summit. It was already close to 1:00, so we essentially abandoned our expectations for a short hike and decided to make a go for the peak, an estimated two hours ahead.

Over the next hour, we scrambled across rocks on the broad expanse of mountaintop. We still had more than 300m (about 1000ft) to climb, under cloudless sun, but adrenaline and determination had turned the hike into a brand new expedition. Once we caught sight of the summit, two of us decided to sprint up the final rocky stretch, and the view that met us at the top was 360-degrees of limitless ocean, sky, and South African landscapes: the city shimmered beside the harbor, the mountains snaked and stretched behind us up the cape, and the suburbs sprawled in three directions toward the sea.

Needless to say, our arrival generated a solid half hour of cheers, pictures, and celebratory fist pumps. We climbed the cairn of rocks on the highest point and then settled down for lunch, absorbing the views and the sense of accomplishment that followed the physical feat of our ascent (and which was continually evidenced by the 1000+ meter drop over the edge). As a child of the digital age, I couldn’t help but pull out my iPod and scroll through a list of songs with the most epic instrumentals in a desperate attempt to find the one that best complemented the scene. The closest I got was U2’s “Beautiful Day”, though the selection might have been influenced by Bono’s African activism.

We made a group decision to walk one more hour south along the Table, which finally leveled off into a flat plain that might have passed for sea level if it weren’t for the clouds hovering at the edges. We hugged the cliff along the most familiar face of the mountain – the one visible from downtown – until we reached the cable car station and lookout point. Strangely enough, we found a restaurant perched on the edge of the mountain, filled with tourists and (thankfully) water. After we bought tickets for the ride down, we made some phone calls to ensure that the group van knew where to pick us up. Then we snapped even more photos as the cable car sunk past the face of the mountain, towards the city.