July 16th, 2016

Day 107: Cape Town

The forecast showed beautiful sunny weather, so we decided to explore the two famous mountains of Cape Town: Lion’s Head and Table Mountain, both of which were a short 15min drive from our hotel. We planned to hike Lion’s Head in the morning while we had the most energy, then ride the cableway to the top of Table Mountain to take some pictures of the vista.

The hike up Lion’s Head was a cake walk for us. Considering it was a sunny Saturday, the trail wasn’t obscenely crowded on the way up. Near the summit, the path diverges: the steeper way requires the use of ladders and staples (after the Pinnacles trail, this section was a joke), while the path takes an extra 10min. After a few victorious pics at the top, we headed back down as the trail started to get busier. When we came across a detour, Igor took us off the main path for a more secluded hike down.

Early hike up Lion’s Head

 

Climbing the summit of Lion’s Head is like a jungle-gym for adults!

 

Some tourists get scared of heights and create a bit of a bottleneck at the ladders and staples – we found it less crowded when we were going up then coming down

 

A really steep ascent for the last section of Lion’s Head

  

Views from the top of Lion’s Head – downtown Cape Town on the left, and Camps Bay in the middle and right

 

Taking the path back down the mountain

 

Igor takes us off trail on the way down to avoid the crowds, and we eventually end up on a designated loop

When we reached Table Mountain, we were dismayed to discover that the cableway wasn’t running due to high winds at the top of the mountain! It was barely noon, and one of the park managers told Igor that we could hike up – the Platteklip Gorge Trail was the fastest way up the mountain, and she assured Igor it would only take us an hour and a half.

It took us about 3hrs, and it was the most painful hike of the trip. If we hadn’t just hiked Lion’s Head, it probably wouldn’t have been that bad, but Lindsay was practically in tears by the time we reached the top due to the strenuous climb and the drastic temperature change from the base to the summit. At the top, Lindsay didn’t have any energy left to anything but sit in the sun and drink water, so Igor walked around a bit on his own to take panorama pictures and read the information plaques and maps posted at the viewpoints.

At one of the viewpoints, he suddenly found himself alone with a fellow hiker. The guy said hello to Igor, but kept staring at his camera when he was talking. Igor asked if the guy was from Cape Town, he said he from Angola…never taking his eyes off Igor’s camera. When another group of tourists came within earshot, the Angolan suddenly said he had to go, and ran off. Super sketchy.

 

Since the cableway wasn’t running, we had to hike up Table Mountain, too!

 

The path up the Platteklip Gorge is the most direct route up the mountain, but it is steep and monotonous

 

The temperature changed dramatically as we climbed up the mountain – Lindsay was having a really rough time getting up the mountain

 

Igor explored the top of Table Mountain by himself while Lindsay rested and warmed up in the sun, and risked getting mugged by a creepy guy from Angola

 

A map at the top showed additional hiking trails running around the top of the plateau – as it was already late afternoon, we only had time to admire the view of Lion’s Head from above before heading back down

View from the top of Table Mountain

Lion’s Head and Cape Town CBD from the top of Table Mountain

Near the bottom of the trail, Igor found a someone’s car key – some poor hiker must have dropped it! It was getting close to sunset, and we were still a good 30min from the trailhead – whoever lost it probably would not realize it until they tried to open their car; retracing their steps all the way back up the mountain would be a bitch! We carried the key down, and did a quick look to see if anyone was freaking out near a Ford – unfortunately, most cars were parked along the road winding up the mountain, not concentrated in a parking lot. We saw a police truck parked near the trail head, so we figured giving the key to the officer was the best bet. Either that, or we just gave that cop a new car.

Enjoying happy hour the hotel, with a view of Lion’s Head