I suggested a hike with a colleague and we ended up at Skeleton Gorge.
We parked at Newlands Forest and walked down to the bottom of the waterfall. The incline doesn’t stop for a long time, not unbearable, just long enough to remember.
This is not the kind of hike you do with just a bottle of water. You need to pull yourself up some ladders when you get near the top.
I saw the cloud blanket in the morning and expected it to dissipate at least to the point where had some visibility but it wasn’t the case. We got to the top and had probably 50m visibility. Maclear’s Beacon was pretty much invisible to me.
Walking along the top of the mountain with little visibility sucks. You are walking in the clouds so you’re wet pretty much all the time. The wind doesn’t help either so you can easily have a sense of humour failure. I managed to motivate myself with the idea of a hot meal, some food and good night’s rest.
The idea was to take the cable car down, but you can take Platteklip Gorge down for a longer day. That’s the red line on the map at the top of this post. For an even longer day, I want walk back around to see the King’s Blockhouse.
It sound crazier than it is, but you will need to be fit and prepared with some food in the hydration pack. I think a 2 liter hydration pack with an extra 500ml water some nutrition bars and a good breakfast should get you across the line.
We got back down to the bottom after paying for the trip down and got an Uber back to Newlands. Foresters Arms provided the hot meal, too much whiskey and a good time. It was a good day, bad weather at the top or not.
