First Attempt at Strenuous Activity

After two weeks of easy going travel, being driven around to look at animals and chilling out on the beach, our arrival in Cape Town presented the first real opportunity for us to stretch our traveling legs. While we undertook a nice walk around the neighborhood where we stayed (Green Point/Sea Point) and the V&A Waterfront after our arrival. On day two we set out to conquer Table Mountain, the ever present landmark looming over Cape Town.

Table Mountain view from V&A Waterfront

Based on advice from a couple of people we decided to begin our hike/climb from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, southeast of the city center, via the Skeleton Gorge route. The mountain peak is 1087m and offered by far the most ambitious climb either of us had undertaken, which doesn't speak too proudly for our mountaineering - especially after meeting so many Kilimanjaro climbers in Tanzania.

Fair warning

The ascent took us a little over three hours, with a good number of photo breaks, and included some periods of seriously steep up hill walking, ladders and even some climbing up  and over rocks in part of the gorge. 

A little help on the way up

The views and scenery were unbelievable even on a somewhat hazy day, and the energy exerted made for a real sense of accomplishment when we finally reached the top where we enjoyed our lunch of leftover snacks from our safari lunches as we didn't bring any real food with us (whoops). 

Success!

Unfortunately the descent did not provide any relief to our now aching legs and feet. Most people take the cable car back down so we should get some points for walking back, even if the pace was slow and there was a lot of groaning. 

Carefully down

After almost another three hours we emerged back in the botanical gardens, although not exactly where we expected to. Thankfully we waited till the very end to get a little lost. We treated ourselves to a well deserved beer and cookies on the grass in the gardens while hoping the ascent for our Inca Trail hike in April will at least be a little more spread and also come with a real lunch.

We climbed all the way up there!