To celebrate reaching 25 posts and being granted permission to post in the International area, I’ll post a rather belated account of our very first mountain climb…
Way back in 2009, and well before we walked for leisure (or at all if we could avoid it), we climbed Table Mountain. We used to enjoy cruising and one day, as our ship neared Cape Town at the break of dawn, we were treated to the awesome sight of the mountain behind the city and we decided to climb it.
It was a daft idea since the closest we’d ever come to climbing a mountain before was five years earlier when we walked a little way up Snowdon on the Llanberis Path – only to give up after a mile or so. But we had to try!
Incidentally, and by an amazing coincidence, at 1,085m, Table Mountain is exactly the same height as Snowdon. I’ve only just discovered that fact and I’m sure that from the ship it didn’t look as big as it is – but perhaps that’s to do with its shape?
Anyway, we walked to the nearest bus station and took a bus to the cable car station at the foot of the mountain. That saved us some ascent, but there was still about 750m left.
So there we were outside the cable car station with no idea of what to do next. We didn’t have a map and we couldn’t see anyone on the mountain, so we set off along the road looking for a path. After more than a mile and close to giving up, we saw a signpost pointing towards the mountain. I know now that it was the Platteklip Gorge path, which I’ve since read is straightforward and very steep – correct on both counts!
Before we head on up though I must mention our almost total lack of preparation. It was February - high summer in South Africa – and there was almost no shade. I think we took a couple of bags of crisps and a small bottle of water in my backpack, but little else. We both smoked back then and we took lots of photo and fag breaks!
Soon after setting off up the Platteklip Gorge path with the road we'd walked along below:
The way up is a mixture of zig-zag paths across the slope and steep rock 'stairs' that often needed hands to climb:
It was extremely hot, hard work! The road can still be seen below:
Yet another staircase...
...best done on all-fours!
Okay, that's just a pose (in a perfectly safe spot):
A photo of me to prove I was there too.
The final section is up a gorge which eventually opens onto the summit plateau:
We found our way to a cafe near the cable car station and had coffees and food. Then we took the cable car back down!
Of course we know now that walking down would have been much harder (and more dangerous) than the climb up, but at the time we couldn't believe that we'd actually climbed a mountain and we were very proud of ourselves. It would be several years before we had that exact same feeling again!