Let’s climb Table Mountain?
Are we getting the cable car down?
Do you have R105 to pay for me?
Nice joke. I don’t even have R105 left for this month.
Girl, then best you say sorry to your legs now.
On Saturday a friend and I hiked Table Mountain. As you can tell from our conversation above; we endured this grueling activity to take advantage of the beautiful weather (we told ourselves). Deep down I think it was because we were too broke to do anything else. But it was an experience I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Not because of the views. Oh no. But this may be the longest DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) I have ever experienced in my entire life. It is has been five days since we hiked and I can STILL feel the hiking experience, reminiscent through my tiny and achy calf muscles.
For some strange reason, my friend and I hiked up in record time. It took us 1hr30 to get up and about 45 minutes to get down. I am no Usain Bolt, a couple of gym sessions (yuss boet) and a run or two but I am by no means a threatening contender for Iron Woman at all. So how on earth did we make it up on our first time so fast?
A creepy shirtless guy roughly our age with a poodle in tow was, for a lot of the way, almost breathing down our necks with the close proximity with which he hiked behind us. My friend eventually turned around and asked, “Sorry, would you like to pass?” A very odd/creepy/stalker look crossed his face and he then,“Oh no no. You guys keep going ahead. Slooooow and Steady.” From a close distance away and for a long time, this guy had been watching us hike up in front of him for what could have been about half of the distance up. After that I think our subconscious kicked an invisible red bull into our legs.
After the long journey, making ‘friends’ and stopping to ‘catch our breath’ (which we merely used as an excuse to sit down for a while) we felt ecstatic with what we accomplished. If we were rolling in cash we would definitely have skipped the hike down and gotten a lift with the cable car, but I am glad we didn’t. We made it down in record time, shaky legs, sweaty heads AND we had a late Saturday afternoon cappuccino, feeling really like proud mother hens over what we just accomplished.
For those who want to hike up Table Mountain and catch the cable car down, or for those that want to catch the cable car both ways, here are the mad cool specials that are offered:
It’s your birthday?
FREE
A student?
Discounted rates every Friday
Senior Citizen over 60?
Discounted rates every Friday
All year round trips?
Cable card gives you access to the Cableway for a year, as many times as you want per year (once per day).
So give it a thought for a fun excursion this weekend. Hiking or not, the views from Table Mountain are incredible.
Save and The City 