Lion's Head Hike and Table Mountain
Cape Town is a beautiful place to be outdoors. Unfortunately, many weekends have been rainy and cold due to the fact it is winter in the southern hemisphere. Today, however, is the perfect day. Krishna and I have decided to take full advantage of it and go to the top of two of Cape Town’s mountains: Lion’s Head and Table Mountain.
We started our day at Lion’s Head. It is just under 700 metres high and the path to the top spirals around it. The first part of the hike is a ramped path, so that portion of the hike was relatively easy. However, the closer we got to the top, the more climbing we had to do. Luckily, the steepest portions of the hike have ladders and chain railings to grab onto. Although we had no problem climbing up, we noticed that there were many families also taking advantage of the nice weather and most of them had small children or dogs. We still are not completely sure how the dogs made it up the ladder portions! It took us about an hour to reach the top, and the view was incredible!
Krishna Climbing
Near the Top
At the Top
After enjoying the view, we climbed down, which only took about forty-five minutes. We then took a taxi to Table Mountain. Because we had already climbed one mountain, we decided to give ourselves a break and use the cable car to reach the top of Table Mountain. The cable car holds sixty-five people and rotates so that every passenger will get a 360 degree view of the path up.
View from the Cable Car
We were famished after our early afternoon hike of Lion’s Head, so we treated ourselves to an early dinner at the restaurant at the top of the mountain. After dinner, it was just about sunset, so we went outside, walked around, and took in the view. Table Mountain is a bit taller than Lion’s Head as it is over 1000 meters high, so the view was even more impressive than what we had seen from the top of Lion’s Head. We were able to see all of Cape Town below, Lion’s Head where we had just climbed, and even Robben Island. It was made all the more beautiful by the setting sun. I could attempt to describe it, but no words would do it justice. Even the photos below do not quite capture it. I completely understand why Table Mountain is considered one of the “New” Seven Wonders of the World, and highly recommend a trip to see it!
At the Top of Table Mountain
View of the City
View of Robben Island
View of Lion’s Head
Enjoying the View
Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean
