Table Mountain Conquered and another on the horizon!

I don't really know why, but I have always had this 'fear' of Table Mountain and climbing it. It looked and seemed really hard and quite a monumental challenge. I felt like I couldn't actually do it. And although it's always been on my bucket list, I have never found the right time to commit to actually doing it. Something in my brain told me it was not something 'little old me' could do.

I mean I run, a lot, and reasonably well. I climb Lion's Head with no trouble pretty often. I have even been up to the dams on Table Mountain from the Constantia Nek side (the back) several times and have been down both Nursery Ravine and Skeleton Gorge. I also run around Newlands forest and the contour paths quite often...

Still the front of the mountain seemed so high and scary and well insurmountable (excuse the pun). 
But then A convinced me to do something mad - so I have signed up to join him on a climb of Mt Kinabalu next month in Borneo!! On what will be a whistle-stop trip after a conference we are going to in Singapore. Eeeeeeek!! I am beyond excited, but also rather scared and daunted because well, Table Mountain is just over 1000m (if you climb it is it about 700m as you start at an elevation of around 300 meters) and Mt Kinabalu is (4100m with the climb starting at 1800m) so more than 3 times the ascent of table mountain.


So suddenly Table Mountain did not seem quite so scary. In fact it suddenly seemed like something I really needed to do and fast. As luck would have it a colleague of mine is the New Balance Multi-Sport club Trail Running Captain and he arranged a run/hike up Table Mountain on Saturday morning. He is very experienced and knows the mountain well. Also the weather forecast was good. So I really had no excuses! 
So off I went bright and early. They were going to break into 3 groups. Fast, Medium and Slow. To do various distances and speeds. I said I'd join the middle group and would drop back to the slow(hiking) group if I couldn't keep up. A and my friend Tim came along too. 

It was the most spectacularly beautiful and perfect day in Cape Town. We set off along the Pipe Track at 7am and then climbed up Kasteelpoort (basically rock steps all the way up). At the top we ran along the trails and over the Woodhead Dam wall. I suddenly realised we were in the FAST group and I was at the front nogal!? And I was loving it. In the end we stayed with the fast group and did a full 18km - going around Victoria, De Villiers and Healy Hutchinson Dams through Echo Valley and then up to Maclears before heading to the Cable Station and restaurant for a well deserved breakfast. Afterwards the rest of the group caught the cable car down, but A, Tim and I decided we were not done and might as well make it a full-n training session and so we climbed down Platteklip Gorge and ended up doing about 25km.

It was flippen AWESOME! I will admit we had to have a nap later in the afternoon and were a bit stiff afterwards. But I have FINALLY conquered Table Mountain and LOVED it. I will be back. And seriously guys Cape Town has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is spectacular and RIGHT here to enjoy!

I am DEFINITELY doing that again. What an experience!! 


If anyone is keen on a hike up in the next 2 weeks let me know, because I need to get some climbing time in my legs and also need to get used to slower climbing and carrying a back-pack. 


This is what it looks like up Table Mountain ...