There is a cable car to the top but this is fairly pricey at 180 rand per person (£18 each) to put it in perspective we pay 100 rand a day for accomodation and 40 rand each for food per day. Instead we choose to walk/hike up. There are over 300 trails through the Table mountain national park and it is easy to get lost, so we decide to take the easiest and most popular trail Platteklip Kloof route which takes around 2,5 hours to the top.
Its a sunny day and little do we know it is about to turn out to be one of the hottest days of the year in South Africa, we also do not know out route is in full sun light all the way with little shade.
We set of on our 1200meter vertical assent. It takes us just under 3 hours to the top, and we both finish a liter of water each on the way up. We take frequent brakes because: 1 we are less fit than we imagines, 2 its really hot, 3 the higher we got the thinner the air is.
There are allot of other walkers/ hiker who we talk to during our brakes, they are very friendly many offer us bisquets, sweets and water. This is something we have found all over Africa so far is that people are very friendly, talk-ative and helpfull.
Despite it being an effort to get to top it is well worth it the view really is spectacular, and all the sweeter knowing we climbed all the way up ourselves. Its a real sense of achievement as we pause looking out over the city of Cape Town, the bay, Lions Head and Robben Island. We find a map of the area with arrows to all the major coties in the world and realise we are almost 10,000Km from home!
We are lucky we took our own home made sandwiches up the mountain as everything at the cafe at the top is really expensive, but we are out of water. So we fill up from the taps in the toilets but it doesn't take very good and is a bit brown/ yellow colour. Luckily on the walk down we stop by a small stream/ water fall. The water is running fast and cool so we drink the water, its deliciously cold and fresh with a slight sweet taste. We also take of our shoe's and bate our sore feet in the cool water for a bit before continueing back down. It only takes us just under 2 hours to walk down, we walk for a little while longer until we spot two people about to hop in a cab and suggest sharing it back into the centre of town to save money.
Back in town we realise its Sunday and all the shops are closed, we cant buy food. So we head abck to the hostel and decide to treat ourselves to take away Pizza, its way over our daily budget but we feel we have earned a big meal and spend 100 rand on two Pizza's. Then at 9:30pm we are so tierd we go to bed early.
We are leaving on tuesday for Johannesburg where our Safari is starting, we don't know if we will have some wifi during our safari but we will try to post as much as possible
xxx
D&S
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