Mission Up Table Mountain

Back in the days before we were blessed with kids, we often met up with Zoe and Corne and a few other friends and hiked up the mountains (well, Lion’s Head – is that a mountain?).  It was so much fun that we decided to climb up Table Mountain.

Meeting and parking at the Cable Car section, we then started walking towards Camps Bay.  This should have been my first indication that maybe we weren’t ready for this – we wanted to go UP the mountain, not ROUND the mountain.  Anyway, we found some signs and settled on going with the Diagonal Path…  Half the group that started with us decided to try a different route and we were left with just the four musketeers (Zoe, Corne, Seth and I).

So we started walking up the very clear pathway up the most beautiful mountain on the most beautiful day we could have asked for.  It was lovely!  Stopping for little picnics of chips and chocolate and lots of water, joking and laughing about nonsense – good times!!

The more we were climbing, the less visible the path was becoming and the more paranoid I was becoming about falling off the mountain.  So much so that I was on all fours pretty much the entire way (leaving a rather beautiful sunburn right where my pants and top didn’t meet) – I was scared of being blown off by the soft breeze that was accompanying us on our trek.

After a good couple of hours and still not really seeing any sign of the end I started to get worried.  There was no path and I couldn’t see the good old cable car that would be may saving grace!  At one point when they expected me to climb up a waterfall I think I actually cried, Zoe and I just kept saying that a helicopter better come find us – we were so over it.

But we missioned on.  Walking, climbing, hiking, crying, laughing because crying was pointless – at one point we were trudging through a swampy section, Seth almost lost his shoes – and I made him carry me though it ;).

Then finally we reached the summit!!!  We were rejoicing, clapping, dancing, signing and exstatic that we were finally at the end.  Once the elation had run it’s course, we really took stock of the situation…  We were indeed at the top of the mountain…  We could see the cable car….  But between us and the cable car was a massive, ginormous, gigantic space and not even a space that we could walk across – it was a deep gully pretty much all the way to the bottom of the mountain and then up again.

After vowing to never trust Corne’s hiking direction ever again, we proceeded to make our way around the infinite gap.  It took a while, but you know what?  It was beautiful!!!  We saw things that on a normal hike we would have just run past, now because our feet were sore we were forced to enjoy everything around us!

Finally we made it to the proper “top” (the top that had access to the bottom without much effort).  Victory!!!

Finally we were going down on the Cable Car, I was so scared I think I dug holes right into Seth’s hands…  This is the view view down – even looking at it now makes my tummy queasy!

What an absolute beautiful City we are apart of, you cannot beat Table Mountain or the vibe of Cape Town!