Platteklip Gorge


Cape Town, 21th of August 2018 – Today we are walking up Table Mountain, 515 years after Portuguese explorer Antonio de Saldanha. He got separated from his fleet and needed a lookout point to see if his mates had sailed off without him. Scary thought! Saldanha climbed up the narrow gorge and spotted his fellow seamen. During his ascent he saw the sweet water flowing down, great discovery for the rest of their voyage. The narrow Platteklip Gorge is the most direct way to walk up Table Mountain. It is made of rock-steps and very steep, but with an average fitness you can do it in less than 2 hours. You don’t need a map, you start and just look up all the time, following the serpentine. We leave our car at the ranger post and take the bus to the lower cable station. From there we walk to the starting point. A ranger joins us and we have a chat. “Where are you from?” followed by the “Aha Kevin De Bruyne” sentence. “In Table Mountain National Park, there are only fifty rangers, we patrol along the walking paths and help hikers who got lost or hurt themselves. Once in a while we also have to chase bandits, who ambush people and steal their stuff.” No worries”, he says. “Platteklip is safe… too many people”. The ranger looks extremely fit from doing this hiking all day, on his chest there is a walkie-talkie producing a cracking sound”. We wave him goodbye when we reach the Platteklip sign. We start our ascent with great expectations as the sun shines below and also on the top when we look up. We meet all nationalities, young and old, black, white, yellow, everyone is having fun. But they all have to stop to take a break sometimes. We hear a Flemish family and start a conversation. They are walking back down, their daughters well in front of them. The mother complains: “My youngest ran up Platteklip in an hour, we cannot follow her”. The father proudly adds she will start studying physical education soon… at Ghent University. “Good choice”, I add and walk on. After fifty metres I turn around and shout: “Don’t ever go to the Overpoortstraat…” The father laughs, I suppose he must have downed a couple of pints there in his prime time. OK, we are close to the top now and we see that the famous Table Mountain ‘shroud’ will block the nice view we did this for. A very wet fog grips the Mountain when we walk around.  A group of young women who took the cable car up, walk around on trainers, shivering in shorts and tank tops. They are my personal Table Mountain view! I can live with that.

Tourist bravery on the soft side of Table Mountain (FDC)
Cape Town from halfway up Platteklip Gorge (FDC)


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