Finally Climbed Table Mountain!

I have at long last climbed Table Mountain! I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get my act together, since it's literally at my doorstep. Either way, I finally did it, and let me tell you, this was no small feat. We didn't take the easy way up either...My friend and I signed up to do this hike with the UCT Mountain and Ski Club, but we were initially supposed to do the "Hole in the Wall" hike, which is an unmarked hike through the backside of the mountain. Since it's unmarked, however, it needs to be perfectly clear without a single cloud in the sky. This is because Table Mountain can literally become completely enshrouded in clouds in less than 10 minutes, even if there is only one ominous cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, there were two clouds in the sky, so we switched to the climb up Table Mountain via Skeleton Gorge.

Our hike began on campus and in order to get to Skeleton Gorge we had to climb to Rhodes Memorial and up to the Contour Path. This trail winds its way along the side of the mountain, but it rarely stays parallel with the roads below. It was constant ups and downs, and after a while it seemed like a complete waste of energy since we couldn't see that we were actually climbing up and over several ravines and waterfalls. Underneath the trees I kept being reminded of the trails in the Bay Area, and it was nice to see a bit of a familiar sight.

After a few hours we reached the bottom of Skeleton Gorge. At the path crossroads, all that could be seen of Skeleton Gorge was a winding staircase cut through the forest. I had read about this trail before when I was researching the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (World Heritage Site). The trail is in the garden's backyard and is a well known climb up to the top of TM, but it definitely isn't for people looking for a leisurely walk. The hike up immediately began with tens and tens and possibly hundreds of steps that wound up and around the mountain. Soon enough, we were climbing wooden ladders that had been nailed into the rock beside a waterfall. Suddenly, the ladders and trail disappeared, and it was only by looking up to see some other hikers scrambling up the waterfall that I realized where we were meant to go. So up we went, scaling rocks in the waterfall. This was easily the coolest hike I have ever done, and I can't believe that this is considered a "normal" hike around here. Everyone is always outdoors and moving around here when the weather is nice. It's so different from the states, where most people just want the chance to lie around all day. I guess it has something to do with the fact that Cape Town is already a really laid back town, so they don't need to slow it down anymore than it is.

After a couple hours climbing we finally reached the arid and sparsely vegetated mountain top. It wasn't at all what I expected, and rather than being a plateau with a grand vista, it was a series of jagged rock formations and several other peaks that you couldn't see around. There are also reservoirs up there, and on our way to the first one, I noticed some sand on the trail. I assumed that it was placed there for better treading on the trail until all of a sudden sand was everywhere. It was as if we were walking on a beach...except on top of a mountain...It was probably one of the most bizarre sights I've ever seen. We continued along the top for a bit to see the reservoirs and then climbed back down Nursery Ravine (a less intense, but still many many steps, version of Skeleton Gorge). When we finally reached UCT again it was 5 pm. We left at 8:30 am. My friend and I felt like we were dying so we hurried to a pizza place and ordered the large triple decker pizza with a loaf of cheesy garlic bread. Oh, and then we got fro yo....And I don't feel a single bit of guilt after probably doing the most physically challenging activity of my year.

I hope to possibly climb up Table Mountain again...but maybe on a different route...There's also the cable car, so I might just take that all the way up..and down... :)