The holy trinity of mountains

Greetings from Cape Town!

I hope you had a lovely Easter break. I, myself, have been rather busy with university tasks but have managed to join a running club and to start a weekly hike routine with my friend. The weather in Cape Town has clearly changed; it is autumn now and the evenings are chilly, the sun is down by 7 pm and we have had some rain. Never actually thought that I could be so glad for the rain and I am a known raindancer!

Life in Cape Town is good, I made the best decision coming to live in the city centre and am now enjoying the perks of being able to do all the local city things. The city centre of Cape Town is surrounded by three mountains; the Signal Hill, Lion’s Head and the Table Mountain which ends to Devil’s Peak. If you send any more time in Cape Town and don’t mind the heights, you absolutely must see the view from these three mountains. Lion’s Head is actually the only one you have to hike to since you can actually drive to the peak of Signal Hill and there is a cable car to take you to the Tabletop.

Not premeditated, I conquered these mountains this time in the height order which is also the order away from the Cape of Good Hope; Signal Hill, Lion’s Head and then Table Mountain.

The Signal Hill

We spent a Sunday at a festival at the famous Biscuit Mill in Woodstock and then just decided that the cherry on a perfect day would be to go see the sunset from the top of Signal Hill. This is a rather popular activity so finding a parking spot can be a mission, I just jumped out of the car and ran to stand into an empty spot until the driver managed to reverse into it. But in general, I would just come a bit prepared to walk from somewhere lower. Especially summertime, the sunsets are gorgeous and warm.

The Lion’s Head

My best friend’s favourite activity in Cape Town is to hike the Lion’s Head at sunrise which sounds amazing but I have yet to give it a try! A few weeks ago, we conquered this mountain at sunset which did not leave me anything less than amazed. The hike up can take anything between half an hour and an hour and a half if you are taking your time. Lion’s Head is a good practise ground for mountain runners so you will see plenty of people exercising on the slopes. There are actually two routes up; the first half is the same and then you can choose to go on all fours and pull yourself over a few cliffs using iron bars that are installed into the mountain to help you. Or you can take the pleasurable stroll around the mountain and reach the top a bit later.

Cape Townians really enjoy their hikes and mountains and as much as tourists do these sometimes, most of the people hiking the mountains are locals and they are not there for the first time.

Table Mountain

Table Mountain is the dream, it hovers over the city bowl and is unlike no other mountain in the world. Even if you don’t hike on it, you must take the cable car to see the view from the top. On a cloudy day, find your way to the V&A Waterfront and see how the tablecloth unfolds.

We were keen to hike it and chose the Platteklip Gorge route. It is important to go with people and to choose a known route that has other people on it as well to avoid trouble. Further, there are no water points on the way up on most routes so prepare plenty of water with. We had 1,5 litres each and could have used a bit more as we ended up doing a rescue mission as well (more about that just now). The Platteklip Gorge takes an hour for professional mountain runners and two and a half for casual walkers. You find the beginning of the route if you just walk 10-15 mins past the cable car station (the taxi/bus will probably leave you there or even further down the mountain).

I would say that the hike got exhausting with the sun burning on our backs when we reached the high steps at just under an hour walk. The route also gives you a feeling of victory once you have survived the high steps and are reaching the shade of the mountain, but there is still quite a while to go in the more narrow mountain passage before you are actually on the top.

The rescue mission; after an hour we were reaching this girl walking alone in front of us, just before we reached her, she just slumped on the ground and started puking. She was clearly having a heatstroke, unable to diagnose herself or think of the proper action to be taken. I took my top of, wet it and put it on her head. She was out of water and left behind by her ‘friends’. She was really in a bad shape! We did what we could there, gave her water and I took her bag to carry and at her pace continued our way up. I cannot believe that someone would leave a person behind on a mountain. She was in no condition to hike up by herself and there was no going down at that point. She was on a holiday with her friends and had never hiked before. Please, don’t ever leave your friends behind, pack water, recognise a heat stroke and have an action plan in case something does go wrong.

We finished in 1h 45 min 

The team spirit on the mountain is amazing, closer to the summit we crossed many people on their hike down and they were all rooting us on. We even received a traditional Xhosa encouragement song. We made it to the summit and I must say that hiking there just makes the view even better. There is a restaurant at the top and a souvenir shop so you won’t have to carry everything up to the mountain with you, however, the shops are definitely pricey.

It has been a rather perfect month with loads of surfing and hiking and just enjoying the nature!

Here are Muizenberg Beach and some photos from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden’s Craft and Food festival.

Love,

Mira

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