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~ I dont blog about things to be liked. I blog about things that I like ~
... so that one day, on my death bed, I will have said and done what I wanted to do, and die peacefully without regrets.
Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders & says..' Oh shit....She's awake'
Showing posts with label Table Mountain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Table Mountain. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Hiking Smuts Track on Table Mountain
Hiking Smuts Track was not a another walk in the park. Again, another breathtaking walk - famously known to have been the route of General Jan Smuts which he walked up to the age of his mid eighties.
I had my heart rate monitor
on, and burnt 1680 calories from start to end. Had we not done the cable way down, Im sure I could have added another 400 calories to this figure.
The route starts at the foot of the mountain by Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. It cost us R35 each to get through the gates and onto the route, which is via Skeleton Gorge.
Follow the Skeleton Gorge signs inside the Botanical gardens.
Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens is also a very popular venue for Concerts in the Park.
The path going up varies between wooden foot steps and well placed rocks.
This route is a difficult and potentially dangerous climb, particularly in wet weather.
A good 30 minute walk from the TOP Entrance gate in Kirstenbosch, will take you to cross over the Contour Path and a small sign indicating the start of Smuts Track (there is no confusion as to which way it is, but only up)
The path zig-zags its way up the steep stone steps into the gorge. During winter this is the main flow down for the Liesbeeck river. I particularly love this section of this route the most. Its not often that one can see so much green moss covering the rocks in such a condensed area.
About two thirds of the way up Skelleton gorge, we reached a few wooden ladders (and gladly no chains as the sign indicates). These wooden ladders are a real welcome! Usually by now we've had our second break, but today was one of my stronger days for climbing and we went up in one go all the way to the top.
Looking at these pictures, Im very sad to say that my new Blackberry 9700 Bold
takes very poor pictures compared to my Nokia N82
. Dont get me wrong, I just love the Blackberry for what it has to offer for business etc, but for taking photo's it gets a thumbs down. Had I not dropped my Nokia so many times (on my hikes!) and it was still working, I would have used it hands down as my main source for taking my pictures.
Once we emmerged from the Gorge and its dense forest below, the view of False Bay and the Helderberg is clearly seen. During a cold winters day, the rays of the sun is also a warm welcome.
From here, we walked another 20min up the steep incline before we reached our next crossroad.
At the first crossroad once we reached the top, we turned right to follow the path hugging the side of the mountain overlooking Kirstenbosch and surrounds.
The good news is we reached to top of Skeleton Gorge, the bad news was... the 'mountain' ahead of us.
Its very disheartening if you think you have reached the top, when you see another monster hill in front of you.
Our GPS
indicated that we were on about 800m from here, and we had another 280m to go before we reached our peak... MacClears Beacon.
The climb to the top of the beacon was actually a beautiful walk and fairly easy to walk in about 1 hour from the top of Skeleton Gorge.
At the top of the fabulous walk we were again blessed with a near 360 degree view of the Cape! This is for sure a must do walk if you have not done it.
MacClears beacon marks the highest point on Table Mountain of 1080m. We started walking at an altitude of 50m, so a 1km climb over about 4.5km is not too bad for one to consider it a good walk for the day.
We found a comfy spot on the rocks at MacClears Beacon to have our halfway mark lunch break. Looking down onto our route of last week - Devils Peak. Im still keen to find a way from Devils Peak to MacClears... not sure if there is one? Have seen a few faint paths on Google Earth, but Im going to have to set out on a mission to find this one.
Due to our respect for this majestic mountain, we are very careful to not just go wandering off onto some route into the unknown...
After a short break, we ventured on - heading directly for the cable way. This path follows a almost flat path all along the face of Table Mountain. I just love it here, and would recommend it to anyone to come and see the views this fairly easy and flat section has to offer.
The path literally hugs the cliff face for us to enjoy looking down onto Lions Head and the city of Cape Town almost all the way back to the Cable Station.
Thissection is us looking at Platteklip Gorge from an angle we are not too familiar with. Platteklip Gorge is the easier route to walk up to the top of Table Mountain if you do not wish to take the cable way. Be sure to remember that Plattes (as known by the locals) has no mercy for the unfit either.
The Upper Cable Station is very well equipped - the walkways are also made for easy access for disabled persons - and there is a rather pricey restaurant / coffee shop at the top.
Ha ha, this is Alex - DONE!!! I dont often find him chillaxing like this after a walk... blaming it on a weak stomach - I told him to ease off on the italian salami he had the day before :)
We remembered to take the Wild Cards, which eased off on the price tag of taking the Cable Car down.
Normal price is about R85pp one way, but it cost us R68pp as South African Citizens we had the Wild Cards which helped us get it at a more discounted rate.
You can also buy tickets online if you dont feel like standing in the queue. Note: This queue for the cable way coming up is often over an hour long.
This is a snap that I captured as the cable car started moving down - with the lower Cable Station in sight.
Here is the view from the cable car, looking at the point of mountain we had just come from... I just love staring at the mountain after a walk... trying to see if I can recognise our path we had just done.
Before I got the Garmin eTrex Legend, I used to do this type of picture manually. Now the GPS does it for me automatically. Love it!
Costs of route:
R35pp entrance fee to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
R68pp down the cable way with a Wild Card.
Distance: 8.5km
Altitude: start 50m to 1080m at MacClears Beacon
Calories: 1680
Time: 4 hours
What a walk! We did this walk just over a year ago, but forgot to take pictures (it was raining and we had a white-out on the day - loved that toooooo!), but at that time we were focusing on staying on the track. Great walk, great workout and good all round fun as part of living the life that our environment has to offer us.
I had my heart rate monitor
on, and burnt 1680 calories from start to end. Had we not done the cable way down, Im sure I could have added another 400 calories to this figure.
Follow the Skeleton Gorge signs inside the Botanical gardens.
Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens is also a very popular venue for Concerts in the Park.
About two thirds of the way up Skelleton gorge, we reached a few wooden ladders (and gladly no chains as the sign indicates). These wooden ladders are a real welcome! Usually by now we've had our second break, but today was one of my stronger days for climbing and we went up in one go all the way to the top.
takes very poor pictures compared to my Nokia N82. Dont get me wrong, I just love the Blackberry for what it has to offer for business etc, but for taking photo's it gets a thumbs down. Had I not dropped my Nokia so many times (on my hikes!) and it was still working, I would have used it hands down as my main source for taking my pictures.
From here, we walked another 20min up the steep incline before we reached our next crossroad.
At the first crossroad once we reached the top, we turned right to follow the path hugging the side of the mountain overlooking Kirstenbosch and surrounds.
Its very disheartening if you think you have reached the top, when you see another monster hill in front of you.
Our GPS
indicated that we were on about 800m from here, and we had another 280m to go before we reached our peak... MacClears Beacon.
MacClears beacon marks the highest point on Table Mountain of 1080m. We started walking at an altitude of 50m, so a 1km climb over about 4.5km is not too bad for one to consider it a good walk for the day.
Due to our respect for this majestic mountain, we are very careful to not just go wandering off onto some route into the unknown...
After a short break, we ventured on - heading directly for the cable way. This path follows a almost flat path all along the face of Table Mountain. I just love it here, and would recommend it to anyone to come and see the views this fairly easy and flat section has to offer.
Normal price is about R85pp one way, but it cost us R68pp as South African Citizens we had the Wild Cards which helped us get it at a more discounted rate.
You can also buy tickets online if you dont feel like standing in the queue. Note: This queue for the cable way coming up is often over an hour long.
Another favourite thing of mine to do, is to draw our route of the day off Google Earth map.
Before I got the Garmin eTrex Legend, I used to do this type of picture manually. Now the GPS does it for me automatically. Love it!
Costs of route:
R35pp entrance fee to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
R68pp down the cable way with a Wild Card.
Distance: 8.5km
Altitude: start 50m to 1080m at MacClears Beacon
Calories: 1680
Time: 4 hours
What a walk! We did this walk just over a year ago, but forgot to take pictures (it was raining and we had a white-out on the day - loved that toooooo!), but at that time we were focusing on staying on the track. Great walk, great workout and good all round fun as part of living the life that our environment has to offer us.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Devils Peak from Google Earth via my Garmin GPS
Alex dragged me up Devils yesterday, and oh boy, am I feeling it today! When I said Devils Peak The Easy Route... I did not mean its easy, I meant "the easy route" as in there are way more difficult / hard routes that can take you up to 6 hours just going up.
Having hiked this route so many times before, I must say that this time I was very exhausted at the end. (Burnt 1200 calories
- not too bad for 'just a hike') I guess its been a while since we have been hiking good routes again.
Above is the reading that our Garmin eTrex Legend
produced for us on my computer.The above vertical profile shows that we climbed 610m over a distance of 2.76km.
Remember that you can read more about this routes and its details in other posts of ours: Hiking Devils Peak
I dont normally re-write about a route that I have been on (blogging is very hard work - just in case you dont know it yet!), but this one deserved some more attention as I had a reader from Germany who asked me some questions which I thought I would answer via this blog entry.
The first thing that is important is that we have noted that Table Mountain National Park
have changed all the signs on the mountain. Thank you guys!
On the 2 signs that we did come across, some of the information was incorrect and the suggested changes were made with red indicators as you will see when you read on.
To get there take the Tafelberg Road which runs past the Lower Cable Station of Table Mountain Cable Way. About 3 km from the Cable Station, the path starts to the right (and opposite a car park) as indicated in the image below (or read my other posts of Devils Peak).
Soon you will be climbing steep steps that zigzag their way up the mountain towards the Contour Path.
As you see in the image below, when you cross over the contour path, the sign is easily misleading, so focus on the path going more upwards than the one flattening out (Contour path / Oppelskop). You should be heading towards the Saddle (but the arrow is wrong), so focus on going upwards.
After the above, crossing the path continues to zig zag its way up. Again, if you see other paths, continue to follow the one that is going up, until the path flattens out and heads towards the saddle.
A brisk 10 minute walk on a semi flat route, will take you to a T-junction by the Saddle.
Notice a large rock on the left and a small stream flowing on the right. This is where you turn right.
After your right turn at the T-junction by the Saddle and the big rock, follow your nose and the stream for another 10 minutes.
Soon you will reach another sign, showing Devils peak is the way back. That is wrong. This is your mark where you do not go back to where you came from, but rather do you turn left and head up the steep slate and rather loose rocks to slog your way all the way to the top. They have upgraded this path about a year ago, but the rocks are still fairly loose and slippery.
Once we reached the top of Devils Peak, we headed for a spot away from the wind (the wind is always blowing up here!) and had our well deserved cuppa Nescafe Cuppachino :)
The view from here never seizes to amaze us. So relaxing and so beautiful!
On our way down, we came upon a group of people who were putting up this flag and banner.
We asked them what they were up to and they explained to us that they are protesting and trying to get the name of Devils peak to be changed to Windberg or Duiweberg as it was originally known to be.
The Legend has it that the devil disappeared onto this mountain 300 years ago, hence the name Devils Peak. There are other stories about where its name originated from, but a name change will be great.
More information and pictures about this hike can be found here.
Having hiked this route so many times before, I must say that this time I was very exhausted at the end. (Burnt 1200 calories
- not too bad for 'just a hike') I guess its been a while since we have been hiking good routes again. 
Above is the reading that our Garmin eTrex Legend
produced for us on my computer.The above vertical profile shows that we climbed 610m over a distance of 2.76km.Remember that you can read more about this routes and its details in other posts of ours: Hiking Devils Peak
I dont normally re-write about a route that I have been on (blogging is very hard work - just in case you dont know it yet!), but this one deserved some more attention as I had a reader from Germany who asked me some questions which I thought I would answer via this blog entry.
The first thing that is important is that we have noted that Table Mountain National Park
have changed all the signs on the mountain. Thank you guys!On the 2 signs that we did come across, some of the information was incorrect and the suggested changes were made with red indicators as you will see when you read on.
To get there take the Tafelberg Road which runs past the Lower Cable Station of Table Mountain Cable Way. About 3 km from the Cable Station, the path starts to the right (and opposite a car park) as indicated in the image below (or read my other posts of Devils Peak).
Soon you will be climbing steep steps that zigzag their way up the mountain towards the Contour Path.
As you see in the image below, when you cross over the contour path, the sign is easily misleading, so focus on the path going more upwards than the one flattening out (Contour path / Oppelskop). You should be heading towards the Saddle (but the arrow is wrong), so focus on going upwards.
After the above, crossing the path continues to zig zag its way up. Again, if you see other paths, continue to follow the one that is going up, until the path flattens out and heads towards the saddle.
A brisk 10 minute walk on a semi flat route, will take you to a T-junction by the Saddle.
Notice a large rock on the left and a small stream flowing on the right. This is where you turn right.
After your right turn at the T-junction by the Saddle and the big rock, follow your nose and the stream for another 10 minutes.
Soon you will reach another sign, showing Devils peak is the way back. That is wrong. This is your mark where you do not go back to where you came from, but rather do you turn left and head up the steep slate and rather loose rocks to slog your way all the way to the top. They have upgraded this path about a year ago, but the rocks are still fairly loose and slippery.
Once we reached the top of Devils Peak, we headed for a spot away from the wind (the wind is always blowing up here!) and had our well deserved cuppa Nescafe Cuppachino :)
The view from here never seizes to amaze us. So relaxing and so beautiful!
On our way down, we came upon a group of people who were putting up this flag and banner.
We asked them what they were up to and they explained to us that they are protesting and trying to get the name of Devils peak to be changed to Windberg or Duiweberg as it was originally known to be.
The Legend has it that the devil disappeared onto this mountain 300 years ago, hence the name Devils Peak. There are other stories about where its name originated from, but a name change will be great.
The coloured flag was a prayer and the other the symbol of the cross.
More information and pictures about this hike can be found here.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
New7Wonders of Nature FINALIST TABLE MOUNTAIN
I told you soooooo...........!!!
News Release
Zurich/Switzerland, April 7, 2010—Representing a unique link between the wet, sprawling rainforest of the South American Amazon and solid, majestic Table Mountain, Colombian journalist Frederico Uribe was the 20_millionth visitor to take the cableway up to the South African landmark.
Both Table Mountain and the Amazon, which runs through Colombia, are amongst the 28 Official Finalists in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign—Mr. Uribe cast his vote for both of them during his visit to Table Mountain
Mr. Uribe was in South Africa filming a documentary on the preparations for the FIFA 2010 World Cup.
Table Mountain; the Amazon; Colombian journalist Frederico Uribe on Table Mountain,
voting for his favorites in the Official New7Wonders of Nature campaign
News Release
New7Wonders of Nature
FINALIST TABLE MOUNTAIN WELCOMES 20-MILLIONTH VISITOR
- Colombian journalist cast his votes for Table Mountain and the Amazon -
FINALIST TABLE MOUNTAIN WELCOMES 20-MILLIONTH VISITOR
- Colombian journalist cast his votes for Table Mountain and the Amazon -
Zurich/Switzerland, April 7, 2010—Representing a unique link between the wet, sprawling rainforest of the South American Amazon and solid, majestic Table Mountain, Colombian journalist Frederico Uribe was the 20_millionth visitor to take the cableway up to the South African landmark.
Both Table Mountain and the Amazon, which runs through Colombia, are amongst the 28 Official Finalists in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign—Mr. Uribe cast his vote for both of them during his visit to Table Mountain
Mr. Uribe was in South Africa filming a documentary on the preparations for the FIFA 2010 World Cup.
Table Mountain; the Amazon; Colombian journalist Frederico Uribe on Table Mountain,
voting for his favorites in the Official New7Wonders of Nature campaign
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Diagonal Route up, Kasteels Poort down
oh I LOVE my new toy that I got for Christmas!
this little genius GPS tells me distances, altitudes and maps the route for me directly onto Google Earth. yes... yes... we all have GPS's in our phones (and up our butts! ...is sometimes how I would prefer to put it), but this one is great because it downloads the data so nicely onto my computer. I just love it. Thanks to my awesome boyfriend, who spoilt me rotten for Christmas :)
ok, so here's the route... and I hope you will also like to follow it one day too!
Hiking Trail: Pipe Track, Diagonal Route, via Porcupine Ravine & Kasteels Poort
Name of Reserve / Area: Table Mountain National Park
Nearest Town: Camps Bay, Cape Town
Province: Western Cape
Country: South Africa
To start off with, the Vertical profile below shows how high we climbed as well as the total distance covered.
Duration of hike: 4 hours, if you stop to take pictures.
it all started at 5am and a very disalusioned sleepy me waiting to for 'the lights to come on' to make my next move - and that is to decide if I want to hike today - or kite (one of my other crazy mad hobbies). After much debate with my other half... especially the fact that we agreed on a 6 a.m'er and not a 5a.m'er as he suggested, we managed to get our butts out of bed and 'head for the hills'! (it looks like a blown-out day today with no waves anyway).
Directions to get there: From Cape Town CBD, take Buitengracht Road up towards the Cable Way, at the top of Kloofnek Road, turn left onto Tafelberg Road. Immediately on your right is the parking area for the Pipe Track. Take the steps in the direction of Campsbay, and soon your walk will follow a long narrow path the hugs the mountain towards its more famously known as the 12 Apostles.
Where are we going today? he said to me. So I replied with a very comfortable ... the Pipe Track. Its perfect for when you want to bail out of a planned route, as its long enough for a good walk and short enough if you still want to venture upwards.
Best time of year to go: On a cool cloudy day is always good.
What costs did you incur to do this hike: none
How safe is it: This route is as isolated as the rest of the routes on Table Mountain. Make sure you have some sort of protection on you at all times. We ran into tourists that were totally unprepared for the mountain again.
Today our snacks involved 2 apples, packet of peanuts, some banana bread and 4 sachets of instant cuppachino coffee, 2 litres of water each and a flask of hot water. Alex is not impressed with my choice of nibbles lately... but i have to remind him that we are training to get fit and keep in shape and that these snacks are NOT doing wonders to our waist lines at all.
The image above shows the route along the pipe track, which marks the start and end of this route.
Soon into starting our route we met up with a friendly gentleman and his doggie that he rescued 6 months ago from a local pound. He proceeded to tell us all about the Diagonal Route that we are about to follow.
Pets: Pets are allowed, but please remember that your dog also needs fluids and nutrients when you take them with you. The route is very exposed from the heat of the sun and the rocks get very hot. Ive seen how my own dogs got blisters under their paws from fairly short hikes on hot days, so please take care of them.
Walk along the Pipe Track for 2.5km and turn left by this sign which is the start of your up-climb on the Diagonal Route.
The path will zig-zag almost half way to the top. From here the views of Campsbay and the back of the table are breathtaking. I had to take a few breaks up, but was not half as exhausted as my trip up Platteklip Gorge last weekend.
Difficulty: Easy, very little scrambling, but it was 10km in distance.
Soon you will reach a rock overhang, known as Porcupine Cave. It is not a cave, but a mere rock overhang and a perfect spot for a quick break before you start the next leg of the climb.
Once you have head around the face, the path follows directly over the waterway and up into Porcupine Ravine. Halfway up into Porcupine Ravine, keep your eye out for the clear path heading towards the right. Take this route which is clearly marked by two cairns which are packed on top of the rocks either side of the path.
Now you head in the direction of Barrier Ravine, which also hugs the mountain, until you reach Barrier Ravine.
At the top of Barrier Ravine, we stopped to have well deserve coffee break and picnic.
The banana bread and coffee went down so well. The wind was howling - at least 50km ph - but we managed to get a really awesome spot behind a big rock, with a stunning view of the ocean below. After the apples, nuts and 3 cups of the best Nestle Cuppachino coffee in the whole world, we decided to move on. At the point we made the call that the wind was blowing very strong... in fact too strong to continue our 3km walk to the Cable way (which was closed due to the strong wind), so we decided to rather head towards Kasteels Poort and back down to the Pipe Track.
The path drops over the top and into the Valley of the Red Gods. You could see the Mountain Club huts from here too. Pity we did not spent more time here... but its gonna have to be a definite 'must do' for next time.
I can always count on Alex for finding these stunning Protea's popping up all over the top of the mountain! He was all over the place with his camera. I lost him once, and to my not so surprise, found him up a tree - trying to get to the right angle to get his perfect shot.
This route turned out to be a follow your nose kinda path. Soon after crossing over the top, the path came to a cross road as you head down into this stunning valley of the Red Gods.
Fresh Water: There were small streams at the top, but in summer they could dry out completely.
At the sign - which gave us a choice of left towards Platteklip Gorge (and the Table) and will take about 2 hours to get there, or right towards Kasteels Poort. This is where we decided to take a right onto the boardwalk. Just imagine the expression on my face - when these people walked pass Alex stuck under the boardwalk to get his shot. "eh, ja hey... he is uhm... taking pictures :)" ... which is also part of the reason why I employ him as my chief happy snapper.
The path in the picture below is also known at the Main Road crossing the mountain. It can also clearly be seen in the Google earth image that I attached via my new Garmin GPS which I got from father Christmas last year! what a fun toy to have!
The path ahead of me, is seen in the Google Earth image below as the straight path that marks the point of the Valley of the Red Gods, down towards Kasteels Poort...
Walk about 300m to the next point where the path clearly forks either down towards Kasteels Poort, or can be continued towards the Corridor Ravine and Slangolie Buttress. Here we turned down towards Kasteels Poort to start our descent down table mountain.
A good resting point halfway down Kasteels poort is a beautiful flat rock... pity about the litter bugs and their graffiti that is drawn all over it.
The route down to the Pipe Track took us about 30 minutes.
Shortly before we got to the bottom,we crossed the watercourse of the Valken Buttress. To the left of the Valken Buttress (image below) is Barrier Ravine that we have just hiked through. Nice hey!?
Once you reach the Pipe Track, turn right towards Kloofnek. From here the path takes you 600m to the point where we started out assent into the Diagonal Route. The total distance back to the car is 3km from Kasteels Poort to Kloofnek Road where we parked our car.
How will I rate this hike? We loved this route. It was not difficult to climb and fairly clearly marked out route. The new signage on the mountain is looking very good. My foot was burning underneath from the pain of a car accident a few years ago, but nothing will stop me to come back and do this route again. Today... 1 day later... my legs are super stiff and I know we had a great mind and body work out!
this little genius GPS tells me distances, altitudes and maps the route for me directly onto Google Earth. yes... yes... we all have GPS's in our phones (and up our butts! ...is sometimes how I would prefer to put it), but this one is great because it downloads the data so nicely onto my computer. I just love it. Thanks to my awesome boyfriend, who spoilt me rotten for Christmas :)
ok, so here's the route... and I hope you will also like to follow it one day too!
Hiking Trail: Pipe Track, Diagonal Route, via Porcupine Ravine & Kasteels Poort
Name of Reserve / Area: Table Mountain National Park
Nearest Town: Camps Bay, Cape Town
Province: Western Cape
Country: South Africa
To start off with, the Vertical profile below shows how high we climbed as well as the total distance covered.
Duration of hike: 4 hours, if you stop to take pictures.
it all started at 5am and a very disalusioned sleepy me waiting to for 'the lights to come on' to make my next move - and that is to decide if I want to hike today - or kite (one of my other crazy mad hobbies). After much debate with my other half... especially the fact that we agreed on a 6 a.m'er and not a 5a.m'er as he suggested, we managed to get our butts out of bed and 'head for the hills'! (it looks like a blown-out day today with no waves anyway).
Directions to get there: From Cape Town CBD, take Buitengracht Road up towards the Cable Way, at the top of Kloofnek Road, turn left onto Tafelberg Road. Immediately on your right is the parking area for the Pipe Track. Take the steps in the direction of Campsbay, and soon your walk will follow a long narrow path the hugs the mountain towards its more famously known as the 12 Apostles.
Where are we going today? he said to me. So I replied with a very comfortable ... the Pipe Track. Its perfect for when you want to bail out of a planned route, as its long enough for a good walk and short enough if you still want to venture upwards.
Best time of year to go: On a cool cloudy day is always good.
What costs did you incur to do this hike: none
How safe is it: This route is as isolated as the rest of the routes on Table Mountain. Make sure you have some sort of protection on you at all times. We ran into tourists that were totally unprepared for the mountain again.
Today our snacks involved 2 apples, packet of peanuts, some banana bread and 4 sachets of instant cuppachino coffee, 2 litres of water each and a flask of hot water. Alex is not impressed with my choice of nibbles lately... but i have to remind him that we are training to get fit and keep in shape and that these snacks are NOT doing wonders to our waist lines at all.
The image above shows the route along the pipe track, which marks the start and end of this route.
Soon into starting our route we met up with a friendly gentleman and his doggie that he rescued 6 months ago from a local pound. He proceeded to tell us all about the Diagonal Route that we are about to follow.
Pets: Pets are allowed, but please remember that your dog also needs fluids and nutrients when you take them with you. The route is very exposed from the heat of the sun and the rocks get very hot. Ive seen how my own dogs got blisters under their paws from fairly short hikes on hot days, so please take care of them.
Walk along the Pipe Track for 2.5km and turn left by this sign which is the start of your up-climb on the Diagonal Route.
The path will zig-zag almost half way to the top. From here the views of Campsbay and the back of the table are breathtaking. I had to take a few breaks up, but was not half as exhausted as my trip up Platteklip Gorge last weekend.
Difficulty: Easy, very little scrambling, but it was 10km in distance.
Soon you will reach a rock overhang, known as Porcupine Cave. It is not a cave, but a mere rock overhang and a perfect spot for a quick break before you start the next leg of the climb.
Once you have head around the face, the path follows directly over the waterway and up into Porcupine Ravine. Halfway up into Porcupine Ravine, keep your eye out for the clear path heading towards the right. Take this route which is clearly marked by two cairns which are packed on top of the rocks either side of the path.
Now you head in the direction of Barrier Ravine, which also hugs the mountain, until you reach Barrier Ravine.
At the top of Barrier Ravine, we stopped to have well deserve coffee break and picnic.
The banana bread and coffee went down so well. The wind was howling - at least 50km ph - but we managed to get a really awesome spot behind a big rock, with a stunning view of the ocean below. After the apples, nuts and 3 cups of the best Nestle Cuppachino coffee in the whole world, we decided to move on. At the point we made the call that the wind was blowing very strong... in fact too strong to continue our 3km walk to the Cable way (which was closed due to the strong wind), so we decided to rather head towards Kasteels Poort and back down to the Pipe Track.
The path drops over the top and into the Valley of the Red Gods. You could see the Mountain Club huts from here too. Pity we did not spent more time here... but its gonna have to be a definite 'must do' for next time.
I can always count on Alex for finding these stunning Protea's popping up all over the top of the mountain! He was all over the place with his camera. I lost him once, and to my not so surprise, found him up a tree - trying to get to the right angle to get his perfect shot.
This route turned out to be a follow your nose kinda path. Soon after crossing over the top, the path came to a cross road as you head down into this stunning valley of the Red Gods.
Fresh Water: There were small streams at the top, but in summer they could dry out completely.
At the sign - which gave us a choice of left towards Platteklip Gorge (and the Table) and will take about 2 hours to get there, or right towards Kasteels Poort. This is where we decided to take a right onto the boardwalk. Just imagine the expression on my face - when these people walked pass Alex stuck under the boardwalk to get his shot. "eh, ja hey... he is uhm... taking pictures :)" ... which is also part of the reason why I employ him as my chief happy snapper.
The path in the picture below is also known at the Main Road crossing the mountain. It can also clearly be seen in the Google earth image that I attached via my new Garmin GPS which I got from father Christmas last year! what a fun toy to have!
The path ahead of me, is seen in the Google Earth image below as the straight path that marks the point of the Valley of the Red Gods, down towards Kasteels Poort...
Walk about 300m to the next point where the path clearly forks either down towards Kasteels Poort, or can be continued towards the Corridor Ravine and Slangolie Buttress. Here we turned down towards Kasteels Poort to start our descent down table mountain.
A good resting point halfway down Kasteels poort is a beautiful flat rock... pity about the litter bugs and their graffiti that is drawn all over it.
The route down to the Pipe Track took us about 30 minutes.
Shortly before we got to the bottom,we crossed the watercourse of the Valken Buttress. To the left of the Valken Buttress (image below) is Barrier Ravine that we have just hiked through. Nice hey!?
Once you reach the Pipe Track, turn right towards Kloofnek. From here the path takes you 600m to the point where we started out assent into the Diagonal Route. The total distance back to the car is 3km from Kasteels Poort to Kloofnek Road where we parked our car.
How will I rate this hike? We loved this route. It was not difficult to climb and fairly clearly marked out route. The new signage on the mountain is looking very good. My foot was burning underneath from the pain of a car accident a few years ago, but nothing will stop me to come back and do this route again. Today... 1 day later... my legs are super stiff and I know we had a great mind and body work out!
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