Trip report: Southern Africa
OK, so I've had my takeaway and a bottle of Belgian beer. The cats have stopped attention-seeking and the house is quiet because Sally is 20 miles away with an IV antibiotic drip in her arm failing to...
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Day 15: Saturday - Table Mountain
We've been sneaking up on Cape Town and Table Mountain for the last few days, circling around getting closer and closer. I'm not sure if Sally knew how close we had been to Cape Town the last few days, but I was attempting to make a dramatic entrance to a city, revealing its features a bit at a time.
We took the Chapmans Peak toll road, which being a weekend was rammed with bicycles. Cape Towners do like their exercise, and have a great backdrop to do it in front of.
The other side of Hout Bay it was possible to see the wreck of the French derrick barge BOS400:
From here we proceeded to the top of Camps Bay and up to Kloof Nek, the pass overlooking Cape Town. We turned left towards Signal Hill. I had intended to hike up Lions Head. It is lower than Table Mountain and has the big benefit that compared to Table Mountain, you can actually see the latter from its peak. It is a bit of a scramble and there are some ladders, but it is a lovely climb. However, where I expected there to be a half dozen cars parked along the road by its access path, there were about 300. It was clear that everyone and their grandmother had chosen this day to climb Lions Head. We drove onto Signal Hill to contemplate our options. A quick circle around the car park and we headed back towards Kloof Nek, stopping to admire the view and decide what to do now - the view was pretty good:
Interestingly the parking below the mountain looked quiet, and for once it wasn't covered in cloud. "Why don't we climb the mountain?" Sally asked. No reason really, and it would give me a chance to try a route I'd not used before - albeit the route that most people who don't use the cable car start on - the Platteklip Gorge route:
We were not alone on the hike - there were many young people doing it too. This brought out Sally's competitive streak and she rushed ahead, determined to pass them. I stayed at my steady speed. I know not to get too hot and dehydrated. I've made that mistake before. There were strange noises echoing around the gorge. 3/4 the way up I spotted the source. A guy standing on a ledge playing the flute.
Once we reached the plateau we turned left. From here you can see the line of the mountains extending down to Cape Point. We had driven down one side of this (on the left) and up the other over the course of 2 days.
We finally reached the summit - which is actually Maclear's Beacon. It is only about 16 meters higher than at the cable-car station end, where all the tourists are, but it did afford views across the Cape Flats looking back towards Franschhoek.
I had climbed up to this point before, but from the other side of the mountain - and annoyingly at the time it was in the cloud. Today was good visibility - you could see for miles up the coast:
Heading back towards the top of Platteklip Gorge we took a different route. This was marked with warnings signs saying "Dangerous in wind and poor visibility" - I could see why:
To save our legs we decided to descend by the cable car from the other end of the mountain. This revolves so that wherever you stand you get to see the whole panorama as you descend. Though not everyone seems to understand this. I've been on it before when a oriental woman gripped firmly onto the inside edge of the car and as the floor rotated she walked around looking confused, knocking into surprised people who were standing still minding their own business.
Of course now we were at the other end of the mountain and in fact the cable car heads in the opposite direction from our car. From the lower station we climbed down onto a lower track to avoid walking along the road:
Back at the camper I set the GPS for our hotel. I had booked the last 2 nights in a hotel on the coast so we could relax and get everything sorted. Proper showers, proper beds, proper toilets.
There had been a fair bit of discussion about parking and height restrictions. When we arrived the door men / concierge were very helpful. You might expect that being used to people turning up in Jaguars and BMWs, they might turn their noses up at a dirty couple turn up in a mud and cow-muck covered 4x4 with a greasy winch cable wrapped around the bull bar. In fact, just like when we arrived in Marrakech in the truck camper, the door men loved it. It did get some disapproving looks from some of the guests.
Built on a cliff in Bantry Bay, the hotel was in a sense upside down. The reception was at the top and the floors were numbered going downwards as you descended down the cliff face - i.e. 6 was the lowest floor. We had a room on the 1st floor, just below the restaurant and reception. This gave us the best views and meant it was quick getting out:
From the hotel room window:
We had a very nice shower each, a bit of a lie on the bed, and then got ourselves tidied up to go down to Camps Bay for a meal.
Of course, now we looked completely wrong - climbing out of a muddy expedition vehicle dressed in our smart evening clothes.
Camps Bay is an ideal place to go for 'sun-downers'. Nothing like sitting there with a Mojito and while watching the sun set. The only thing is - it is a bit windy, and today it was extremely windy.
I chose an Italian restaurant I had used before. Again, without booking on a weekend we were taking a risk, but we got the last table:
Being in the Cape region I feel it is only right to have a couple of glasses of wine, so I let Sally drive back :W
The hotel has an apartment complex across the road with a vodka bar on the 2nd floor, so we drop in for a cocktail or two:
Finally the luxury of a comfortable bed, although the sea is still very noisy all night as big surf pummels the rocks 6 floors below us.
Stay tuned for more around Cape Town...
We've been sneaking up on Cape Town and Table Mountain for the last few days, circling around getting closer and closer. I'm not sure if Sally knew how close we had been to Cape Town the last few days, but I was attempting to make a dramatic entrance to a city, revealing its features a bit at a time.
We took the Chapmans Peak toll road, which being a weekend was rammed with bicycles. Cape Towners do like their exercise, and have a great backdrop to do it in front of.
The other side of Hout Bay it was possible to see the wreck of the French derrick barge BOS400:
From here we proceeded to the top of Camps Bay and up to Kloof Nek, the pass overlooking Cape Town. We turned left towards Signal Hill. I had intended to hike up Lions Head. It is lower than Table Mountain and has the big benefit that compared to Table Mountain, you can actually see the latter from its peak. It is a bit of a scramble and there are some ladders, but it is a lovely climb. However, where I expected there to be a half dozen cars parked along the road by its access path, there were about 300. It was clear that everyone and their grandmother had chosen this day to climb Lions Head. We drove onto Signal Hill to contemplate our options. A quick circle around the car park and we headed back towards Kloof Nek, stopping to admire the view and decide what to do now - the view was pretty good:
Interestingly the parking below the mountain looked quiet, and for once it wasn't covered in cloud. "Why don't we climb the mountain?" Sally asked. No reason really, and it would give me a chance to try a route I'd not used before - albeit the route that most people who don't use the cable car start on - the Platteklip Gorge route:
We were not alone on the hike - there were many young people doing it too. This brought out Sally's competitive streak and she rushed ahead, determined to pass them. I stayed at my steady speed. I know not to get too hot and dehydrated. I've made that mistake before. There were strange noises echoing around the gorge. 3/4 the way up I spotted the source. A guy standing on a ledge playing the flute.
Once we reached the plateau we turned left. From here you can see the line of the mountains extending down to Cape Point. We had driven down one side of this (on the left) and up the other over the course of 2 days.
We finally reached the summit - which is actually Maclear's Beacon. It is only about 16 meters higher than at the cable-car station end, where all the tourists are, but it did afford views across the Cape Flats looking back towards Franschhoek.
I had climbed up to this point before, but from the other side of the mountain - and annoyingly at the time it was in the cloud. Today was good visibility - you could see for miles up the coast:
Heading back towards the top of Platteklip Gorge we took a different route. This was marked with warnings signs saying "Dangerous in wind and poor visibility" - I could see why:
To save our legs we decided to descend by the cable car from the other end of the mountain. This revolves so that wherever you stand you get to see the whole panorama as you descend. Though not everyone seems to understand this. I've been on it before when a oriental woman gripped firmly onto the inside edge of the car and as the floor rotated she walked around looking confused, knocking into surprised people who were standing still minding their own business.
Of course now we were at the other end of the mountain and in fact the cable car heads in the opposite direction from our car. From the lower station we climbed down onto a lower track to avoid walking along the road:
Back at the camper I set the GPS for our hotel. I had booked the last 2 nights in a hotel on the coast so we could relax and get everything sorted. Proper showers, proper beds, proper toilets.
There had been a fair bit of discussion about parking and height restrictions. When we arrived the door men / concierge were very helpful. You might expect that being used to people turning up in Jaguars and BMWs, they might turn their noses up at a dirty couple turn up in a mud and cow-muck covered 4x4 with a greasy winch cable wrapped around the bull bar. In fact, just like when we arrived in Marrakech in the truck camper, the door men loved it. It did get some disapproving looks from some of the guests.
Built on a cliff in Bantry Bay, the hotel was in a sense upside down. The reception was at the top and the floors were numbered going downwards as you descended down the cliff face - i.e. 6 was the lowest floor. We had a room on the 1st floor, just below the restaurant and reception. This gave us the best views and meant it was quick getting out:
From the hotel room window:
We had a very nice shower each, a bit of a lie on the bed, and then got ourselves tidied up to go down to Camps Bay for a meal.
Of course, now we looked completely wrong - climbing out of a muddy expedition vehicle dressed in our smart evening clothes.
Camps Bay is an ideal place to go for 'sun-downers'. Nothing like sitting there with a Mojito and while watching the sun set. The only thing is - it is a bit windy, and today it was extremely windy.
I chose an Italian restaurant I had used before. Again, without booking on a weekend we were taking a risk, but we got the last table:
Being in the Cape region I feel it is only right to have a couple of glasses of wine, so I let Sally drive back :W
The hotel has an apartment complex across the road with a vodka bar on the 2nd floor, so we drop in for a cocktail or two:
Finally the luxury of a comfortable bed, although the sea is still very noisy all night as big surf pummels the rocks 6 floors below us.
Stay tuned for more around Cape Town...
