That’s us, sweaty and exhausted, after our hike up to the top of Table Mountain. Seriously, we both thought we were going to die on this hike!
We arrived into Cape Town late at night and met our transfer, who took us to the Romney Park hotel. It was a nice suite downtown, with easy access to the boardwalk and the hop on/hop off bus. We crashed immediately after our late arrival in preparation for our hike the next day.
BUT INSTEAD OF LEAVING RIGHT AWAY EARLY FOR THE HIKE, we decided to have breakfast at a leisurely pace, and then head down to drop our laundry off (for a much better price than the hotel was willing to offer us!), and then make our way at a mosey to the hop on/hop off bus (which was really enjoyable and we recommend it), until finally we were dropped off at the base of the Table Mountain tram at about 1015, JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOTTEST PART OF THE HOTTEST DAY.
We’d thought about taking the shortest route directly under the tramway, but the eyes of the woman at the information desk when we asked where the trailhead was told the tale. She HIGHLY RECOMMENDED taking the Platteklip route, because although it may be slightly longer, there was some tiny amount of shade, whereas the shorter trail had no shade at all. Seriously, she appeared to be worried for us. So we took her advice, and after applying copious amounts of SPF 50 we headed towards:
The warnings on this trailhead sign were duly ignored by us, although we laughed a bit at the emergency phone number to call. I mean honestly, how hard could it be? After all, we had 40 oz of water each!
The trail is well maintained and the route is obvious. There are plenty of people doing the same thing as y0u, which is CLIMBING A STAIRWAY OF STONE UNTIL YOU REACH SPACE CAMP.
Step after step, under the blazing heat of a 90 degree sun, we climbed. Seriously, if you’re not in shape don’t try climbing this route. We made it about half way before we realized that perhaps it was too hot and maybe we didn’t have enough water and OMG WE DON’T WANT TO DIE!!!!!
By this point, Kelly was sharing her water, sip by sip, with me. I had conserved as much as possible, but ran out about 2/3 the way up. Also of note, by this point b0th of us had the worst heat exhaustion we have ever had, and were dizzy and nauseated every time we stood up from bending over from being out of breath and out of leg strength. Seriously.
But we took each step one by one. Keep looking down, and put one leg in front of the other. And gradually, one shady spot after the next, one sip of increasingly dwindling water after the other, we made it. I mean, we weren’t going to GO BACK DOWN after all of that work! After all of that heat, and all of those steps, and all of that rock and sweat and tears, we finally made it.
We rushed to the shop at the top and bought a couple of bottles of water each and a couple of Coca Colas full of sugar. After enjoying those we made our way to the tram and a much deserved trip down to the base. The tram was lovely, and swiveled around so that everyone could get a view out the front.
We earned this one, you guys. It was a hard hike, with steep steps in the blazing sun and de—-hy—-dration! But if you’re willing and able, do the hike. It was immeasurably pleasurable.
After this madness, we took the hop on/hop off bus back to the stop near our hotel, and enjoyed some poolside champagne and relaxation. Tomorrow will be a wine country tour!
Add Some Glamour 