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Cape Town City Bowl and Table Bay |
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In the four long years since
the last visit to my beloved homeland and country of my birth, South
Africa, I had dreamed of renewed walks up Table Mountain. Having
clocked up a 3-day Boland Trail hike, I was well in the
mood for an excursion up Cape Town's lofty fortress. A date set for just after Christmas,
it presented an opportunity of
working off the excesses of the festive period. I had long since
done Echo Valley, which is just one route hikers use to cross from
the flat plateau visible from the Cape Town city bowl, to the
central areas of the mountain. The idea of climbing from the front via Platteklip
Gorge ("Flat Stone Gorge") and descending via Kasteelspoort on the Atlantic Ocean side of
the mountain seemed an attractive option, weather permitting. The summer
months in Cape Town, though not the rain-bearing season, poses
particular threats, particularly when the south-easterly wind blows,
resulting in very strong winds at the summit. The flat top of the
mountain is often covered by orographic clouds, formed when a
south-easterly wind is directed up the mountain's slopes into colder
air, where the moisture condenses to form the so-called "table
cloth" of cloud. Legend attributes this phenomenon to a smoking
contest between the Devil and a local pirate called Van Hunks. When
the table cloth is seen, it symbolizes the contest.
Most people
choose the lazy way of exploring the mountain, by taking the cable
car from the lower cable station on Tafelberg Road near Kloof Nek.
It lies at an altitude of 302 metres. The upper cable station lies on
the westernmost end of the Table Mountain plateau, at an altitude of
1067 metres. The upper cable station offers views over Cape Town,
Table Bay and Robben Island to the north, and the Atlantic seaboard
to the west and south. Realising that we ran the risk of running
into hordes of tourists in an attempt to find parking at the base of
the Platteklip Gorge path along Tafelberg Road, I proposed setting
out from Kloof Nek Road car park (too far from the lower cable
station for your average tourist), the advantage being that the
final stretch along the pipe track would see us complete the walk on
relatively flat terrain, at the end of a long day's walk. |
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Fynbos in abundance, on the lower
slopes of Table Mountain below Tafelberg Road |
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View of Lions Head along the old
dirt road below Tafelberg Road |
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The main feature
of Table Mountain is the level plateau approximately 3 kilometres
from side to side, edged by impressive cliffs. The plateau, flanked
by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's Head to the west, forms a
dramatic backdrop to Cape Town. This broad sweep of mountainous
heights, together with Signal Hill, forms the natural amphitheatre
of the City Bowl and Table Bay harbour. The highest point on Table
Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau and is marked by Maclear's Beacon, a stone cairn built in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear
for trigonometrical survey. It is 1,086 metres above sea
level, about 19 metres higher than the cable station at the western
end of the plateau. The cliffs of the main plateau are split by
Platteklip Gorge ("Flat Stone Gorge"), which provides an easy and
direct ascent to the summit and was the route taken by António de
Saldanha on the first recorded ascent of the mountain in 1503. The
flat top of the mountain is often covered by orographic clouds,
formed when a south-easterly wind is directed up the mountain's
slopes into colder air, where the moisture condenses to form the
so-called "table cloth" of cloud. Legend attributes this phenomenon
to a smoking contest between the Devil and a local pirate called Van
Hunks.[4] When the table cloth is seen, it symbolizes the contest.
Table Mountain is at the northern end of a sandstone mountain range
that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula. To the south of the main
plateau is a lower part of the range called the Back Table. On the
Atlantic coast of the peninsula, the range is known as the Twelve
Apostles. The range continues southwards to Cape Point.
The Table Mountain National
Park, previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, was
proclaimed on May 29, 1998, for the purpose of protecting the
natural environment of the Table Mountain Chain, and in particular
the rare fynbos vegetation. The park is managed by South African
National Parks. The park runs approximately north-south along the
range of mountains that make up the mountainous spine of the Cape
Peninsula, from Signal Hill in the north, through Lion's Head, Table
Mountain, Constantiaberg, Silvermine, the mountains of the southern
Peninsula, terminating at Cape Point.
These panoramic
photos by wikipedia clearly show the extent of the route we
were to undertake. The first photograph above depicts the level
plateau at the cable station end, Lions Head, the Cape Town City
Bowl and Devils Peak to the right. The second, taken from Devils
Peak, shows the Devil's Peak (shrouded in cloud), the Table Mountain
plateau with Twelve Apostles over to the right, partially shrouded
in cloud. Tafelberg Road can clearly be seen as it runs down to
Kloof Nek in the centre of the photograph. |
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The GPS
track mapping the entire route is shown here, courtesy of Ralph Pina. |
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View of the City Bowl & Table Bay
from Platteklip Gorge, just before ascending into the clouds. |
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An old road dirt, in all
likelihood the original road prior to the construction of Tafelberg
Road, leads off from Kloof Nek car park, emerging at Tafelberg Road
near the Platteklip Gorge hiking path, not far from the lower cable
station. Two paths provide a route up, before they merge higher up
the face of the mountain. It was surprising to find the path quite
busy, with a significant stream of people heading in both
directions. Foreign accents, notably Dutch, French and German,
hinted at the presence of tourists. Encouraging too was the
number of local folk from different ethic groups willing to take up
the challenge, a sure sign that the hiking demographic has changed
over the years. Somewhat annoying was the geek who figured he had to
share his great need for a rap soundtrack as an accompaniment to his hiking experience, courtesy of his
mobile phone. |
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View of Table Bay towards Milnerton,
from Platteklip Gorge. |
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On Table Mountain's plateau, in the
mist - the junction at Echo Valley; The ascent into the clouds on
Platteklip Gorge. |
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On Cape Town's plateau - footpaths
designed to protect the environment; Descending the steel ladders
towards Echo Valley. |
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Impersonating the rugby World
Champions - doing the hakka! |
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We ascended into the cloud
base, which showed no signs of clearing, some distance below the
summit. Ralph is obviously the fitter of the two of us. Despite five
weeks of hotel accommodation in Chennai whilst succumbing to the
dreaded Delhi Belly in the process began to take its toll in my
case, I reached the summit in a shorter time than most. After a
momentary respite, we continued on towards the edge of Echo Valley, which involves
descending a few ladders en route, until one reaches a crossroads,
with optional routes to either Maclears Beacon (the highest trig
point on the mountain) via Smuts Track, or Kasteelspoort. With nothing to see
as a result of the low cloud, the
former route held no interest for me at this stage, so we continued
the climb out of the Valley of Isolation and into the Valley of the
Red Gods, emerging with a view of Kasteelsberg, which lies at the
head of Kasteelspoort, on the Atlantic. The path is well maintained
and on one or two sections of the route, wooden platform walkways
have been erected to protect the reed fynbos beneath. I found myself
immersed in the splendour of this garden of Eden and the need to
capture it on camera, rudely interrupted when Ralph came back
wondering what the hell had happened to
me! |
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Approaching Kasteelspoort &
Kasteelsberg from Valley of the Red Gods. |
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Examples of Table Mountain's fynbos. |
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Indigenous Yellowwood tree. |
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We decided to park off for
lunch at Woodhead Reservoir, as the mist had lifted and the sun had
emerged. Al of a sudden a group estimated at some 50 Koreans were
seen heading over towards us, crossing the dam wall in single file.
The tourists had arrived! This was fine with me, until one in particular
felt the urge to scream ferociously in the direction
of Disa Gorge, as if somehow compelled, encouraged further by the
echo it created.
Soon they were gone and tranquillity was restored. In 1870, the
growth of Cape Town led to shortages of drinking water. It was
decided to build a reservoir on Table Mountain to provide water to
the city. Scottish hydraulic engineer Thomas Stewart was engaged to
design and build Woodhead
Reservoir. The Woodhead Tunnel was built between 1888 and 1891. It
was used to divert the Disa Stream, a tributary of the Hout Bay
River, westward to provide water for the reservoir. |
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View towards Vlakkenberg. |
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By the 1870s, Capetonians had
proposed a railway to the top of Table Mountain, but plans were
halted by the Anglo-Boer War. The City Council began investigating
the options again in 1912, but this was in turn halted by the First
World War. Despite initial cost estimates considered excessive at
the time, the city's population was supportive of the project and in
a referendum overwhelmingly voted in support of the project. A
Norwegian engineer, Trygve Stromsoe, presented plans for a cableway
in 1926, and construction began soon after with the formation of the
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company (TMACC). Construction of was
completed in 1929 and the cableway was opened on October 4, 1929 by
the Mayor of Cape Town. The cableway has been upgraded three times
since then.
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A
landscape of fynbos with Vlakkenberg as the backdrop. |
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