Lion’s Head

It really does look like a Lion’s Head but only from a certain angle (not this one) and with some imagination.

You could say that Lion’s Head is the mountain of my youth. I used to live just beneath it and looked at it every day. In my angst-ridden teens it was probably all day.

But I have never climbed to the top. I’ve meandered on the lower sections but not very high up. This is shameful. This week I shared on Facebook the most amazing photo, taken by one Brendon Wainwright, taken from inside a cave facing Table Mountain. I didn’t even know there was such a cave – apparently it’s more of an over-hang, according to my friend Frank Gaude, who is an excellent mountain guide. Look at Frank’s Facebook page, he’s also a better photographer than I am.

To cut a long story short, Frank is urging me to go to the cave and has offered to take me. I’m not too sure about this because I’ll huff and puff and embarrass myself. So I promised to think about it and psych myself up. It has, after all, been too long since I did a decent hike. This is part of ‘psyching myself up.’

The photos below are from previous hikes. Here’s the pic I shared on Facebook. Try to ignore the douchebag comments from idiots who insist it’s fake because they haven’t seen it. It’s called Wally’s Cave and I don’t know who Wally is but I will try to find out.

This is a cave above Tokai known as Elephant’s Eye. Yes, we like to name our stuff after animals. I did this lovely walk with Heather a few years back and that’s her silhouetted in the cave entrance.

This is another friend of mine, Gaetan aka Frenchy, doing some stuntwork on Noordhoek Peak, a walk inside Silvermine (where no silver has ever been found). Silvermine has great hikes and I’m proud to say I’ve done them all.

This is Hout Bay from the top of Noordhoek Peak. The winding road is Chapman’s Peak Drive, one of the most beautiful coastal drives in the world. I drive it all the time with clients so now I can predict the exact moments when they will gasp in surprised pleasure as we round a bend.

UPDATE: Wally seems to have been quite a man. Read about him here. Thanks for giving me the link, Frank! See? Frank knows stuff.

A day in Cape Town

Today didn’t start off too well … Robben Island ferry cancelled, clients waited for me at the wrong place, crazy crazy traffic jam, time wasted hanging around on Lion’s Head waiting for perfect conditions so one client could go paragliding (it never happened), and then more traffic as it took 45 minutes to travel 2 kms. At one point I thought my head was going to explode – headache, sinuses, hunger, heat, traffic – yay! But everything turned out well in the end and it was a good day because Cape Town is fabulous, warts and all.

Camps Bay in all its glory – clients went nuts imitating Chinese photo-taking tourists on the rocks. They’re somewhere in this photo, in among the other tourists.

Then I framed my clients on top of Signal Hill where, for some strange reason, we had the place to ourselves

Poor Lions’ Head – all scarred from last week’s fire. How the Kramat was saved is anyone’s guess – it’s the green-roofed building next to the centre path.

Three lonesome trees at the top of the mountain.

Poor little owl chick at Kirstenbosch. He lives in a plant basket hanging above the balcony at Vida e Cafe but has recently taken to jumping down to the balcony where visitors pick him up and touch him. I had to stop a woman who was trying to get it to sit on her arm but instead caused it to fall and roll around on this ledge. Eventually one of the baristas came and put it back in its basket. This is not going to end well as this bird has no fear of humans.

I had the conservatory all to myself for a while (where was everyone today? Stuck on the roads in traffic?).

One of the stunning Dylan Lewis sculptures at Kirstenbosch.

I thought I’d died and gone to heaven at the Kirstenbosch nursery. They’ve just received a huge shipment of succulents. Prices are not bad and there are some species I’ve been hankering after – I am there like a shot next week as soon as my clients leave.

There was no way on earth I was going to sit in traffic again to get home so I went to the Sea Point promenade to see what’s happening with the repairs to the section next to the Pav. I was told it should be finished in a week’s time. I thought it was just the paving being redone but it’s the whole wall and railings, quite a big job.

Even the beach is off-limits which I’m sure is being ignored by the regulars.

I love how the construction fencing has been carefully placed around each of these trees that grow sideways and provide the best shade parking in town.