Down Platteklip

So as some of you may know, one of the things I was looking forward to most about Cape Town was getting a chance to climb Table Mountain, the colossus that looms 3,563 ft. above the sea-level city. Yesterday I got my chance. Our group woke up early to hike up Skeleton Gorge, a trail that runs along the back of the mountain out of the Kirstenbosch Gardens and which is, thankfully, largely shaded. Then we hiked across the top of the Table to the cable station on the other side (where you could tell which tourists had taken the cable car up by their flip-flops, skirts, perfume, and otherwise pristine appearances). The hike up was beautiful and I'm not even going to try to do justice to the view from the top. Suffice it to say that by the time we left the cable station I was so in love with the experience that I was pretty much ready to hike up every other mountain in the larger Cape Town area (which would probably require about a hike a weekend between now and the time we leave in May).

This was all before the hike down.

We left the top of the mountain by about 1:00 PM--when the sun was out in full force--to climb down Platteklip Gorge on the north side. This trail was NOTHING like Skeleton Gorge. For one thing, there was absolutely no shade, and since it's the shortest way down the mountain, it's also the steepest. Essentially, we're doing narrow switchbacks down huge stone boulders with loose rock and sand, with briars and thistles on one side of the trail and a steep drop-off on the other. But don't worry: should you lose your footing and slip off the side of the mountain face, there's always a barbed wire fence to gently stop your fall. (Did you catch that? Barbed wire.)

So I'm in these huge hiking boots which were lovely for the route up but now are making my feet feel overlarge and clunky, so I'm making sure to put both feet firmly on each boulder before moving to the next one--meaning that I'm dragging behind the four or five friends that I've been hiking with. My legs are shaking like the world is about to end, I can't see anybody above me or below me, I can feel my skin starting to burn in the heat, and I'm starting to wonder why God in his infinite wisdom decided that mountains were a good idea in the first place.

So about forty-five minutes into this trek downwards, when I've run out of pleasant things to think about and am beginning to psych myself out about balance and my seemingly high center of gravity, two or three schoolboys and a group of African guys with long dreds come up behind me. At this point, I have lost all sense of shame and have decided that unless I scoot down the trail on my butt, my bones will become just another trail marker on Platteklip Gorge. An excellent time for company, really.

Needless to say, my fellow hikers (who, unlike me, still warrant the name, seeing as they are practically skipping down the mountain on their own two feet) find me delightfully amusing. Thankfully, God has spared me a shred of my sense of humor, so I can relate.

The first guy goes by. "It's a little steep, eh?" he says jokingly, and continues hopping down the boulders. He probably could have done cartwheels down the mountain if he had wanted. I laugh and continue my awkward crabwalk.

The next one comes up. "Is this your first time mountain climbing?" he asks, laughing at me. No, I think to myself. One time I climbed a perfectly legitimate mountain a fourth this size in New Hampshire, thank you very much. I laugh. "It's not obvious, is it?" He finds this hysterical.

One of the schoolboys goes past. He doesn't say anything; he just looks at me and giggles.

The last guy. "So you are American, eh?"
....Ouch.


But the end of the story is that I made it to the bottom. I was pretty tempted to kiss the earth like an astronaut does, but some of the other students were there and I had regained a little bit of my personal dignity by that point. I suppose the day might have seemed nicer had we taken the cable car down; I would have ended the day much less sore, and without the severe sunburn on my neck and the blisters on my toes (and might have slept better last night because of it). But then again, I wouldn't have had the stories that I have (or the bragging rights. A good number of people climb up Platteklip, but as far as I can tell most of them prefer to take the cable car down, for obvious reasons). I also wound up with a new appreciation for Habbakuk 3:19: "He makes my feet like the deer; he enables me to go on the heights." Before, I never really saw the allure of that verse. I think I've got a better idea of it now.

(P.S-- this is Jill, a new crazy/hysterical Cornerstone friend. And yes, this is a typical interaction.)