Day 11 of the 24 Days of Pain was HOT! It was around 29/30 degrees and a beautiful day so I decided that my pain for the day was going to involve me hiking up Table Mountain and oh boy was it worth it! Before the hike though, I needed to go grab my car from Fiorini Motors, so I caught a bus into town in the morning, which turned out to be driven by what I am sure was a driver that used to drive the annoying taxi’s around because he was SUPER crazy and I’m sure everyone else on the bus were scared for their lives.
When I got home, I needed to get a little sleep before the hike because on Wednesday night I had insomnia again and was up till around 4:30 and up again at 8am.
The hike to the top of Table Mountain was amazing!! I’ve only ever hiked up there 3 times before and every time I’ve gone, I tend to forget how intense the Platteklip Gorge route actually is. With large lunges and loose rocks all the way to the top, you need to watch yourself every step of the way or you’ll land up slipping or having a tumble like I landed up doing 9 minutes into the hike.
Along the way, I did stop and talk to a few people, one of which I landed up taking a photo of for my #365PortraitsOfStrangers project. Yongama was near the top playing on his xylophone which can be heard echoing off the rocks as you get closer to the top and it was a welcoming sound as I got closer and closer. It was also a welcome break when I decided to sit and chat to him for about 15 minutes while he played Chariots of Fire for me as well as a few other Christmas type songs.
After the break though, I made my way to the top and found a really awesome spot on a ridge with a vertical drop below me to sit and have some ice cold water I had with me that had some GNC Liquid L-Carnitine with a refreshing Lemon Ice Tea flavour to it.
The top was amazing and there were views for days, so I took a few photos, did a time-lapse (which I will upload to Instagram soon) and then made my way back down. Along the way, Yongama came running down to catch up with me and asked if I could give him a ride to the bus stop at the bottom of Tafelberg Road.
All in all, the hike took just over 2 and a half hours and it was amazing!
Watch the video here: