It may be in the city but family finds that scaling Table Mountain can still be a challenge
June 21, 2008

MICHAEL BENEDICT
Special to the Star

CAPE TOWN, South Africa— Every year, about half a dozen people die climbing Table Mountain, the massive plateau that defines Cape Town’s skyline.

“But not to worry,” says our guide, Robin Kayser. “They are all tourists doing silly things.”

Pointing to the mountain top, Kayser adds that just recently a German wandered off the trail, slipped and fell to his death down one of the mountain’s deep crevices. One secure way to scale the 1,050-metre mountain is by cable car — no major incidents in nearly eight decades of operation. Some 800,000 visitors annually take the five- to 10-minute ride in rotating compartments that hold up to 65 people. The panoramic view from the car and at the summit provides new meaning for the cliché adjective “breathtaking.”

Below, we see the city, of course, but also infamous Robben Island, 12 kilometres out into the Atlantic Ocean, where Nelson Mandela spent too much of his life.

Table Mountain’s altitude (more than four times as high as Montreal’s Mount Royal) and sheer cliffs combine to provide a view that is comparable only to that from a small aircraft. From one side, we look inland to the rolling wine country, about one hour’s drive away. On another side of the flat top, we look straight down — a view not recommended for the vertigo-challenged — to the sandy beaches of Camps Bay, an upscale Cape Town suburb.

Another safe way to scale Table Mountain is fairly simple: Walk carefully, stay on the 800 kilometres of well-marked trails, dress properly for sudden weather changes and bring plenty of water. Visitors can as easily suffer from heat stroke when the temperature rises above 30C as from a slip. “Just because Table Mountain is in the city,” says Kayser, “doesn’t mean that it’s a walk in the park.”

The ascent up Platteklip Gorge is the quickest route to the top — and the steepest, seemingly 90 degrees at times. The trail consists of large, stone slabs embedded into the mountainside. But the space between these rock steps is designed for an eight-footer.

Kayser — who became a full-time guide five years ago, turning down a Commonwealth scholarship for a PhD in history — and my teenage boys wait several times for me to catch up. Even though I run two kilometres, four or five times a week, I find the walk painful. My lungs burn, my head spins and my knees throb. I am moving very slowly. Very, very slowly.

One-third of the way up, we are buffeted by the mountain’s periodic high winds. They are strong enough to close down the cable car, something that happens between 60 and 90 days per year. Today, the winds are officially considered gale force, at more than 70 km/h. It helps to crouch and crawl during gusts. Thankfully, there is no accompanying storm — the skies are cloudless.

Still, we can barely hear Kayser above the wind as he tells us about the park’s wildlife. A national park since 1998, Table Mountain is a vegetation cornucopia. In fact, says Kayser, Table Mountain is home to nearly 6,000 plant species, more than the entire British Isles.

Read full story ... www.thestar.com/Travel/article/446436