Today I went on a magnificent hike to the very top of Lion’s Head—as opposed to Lion’s Rump (no joke, that’s what the rest of the mountain is called)—with an elevation: of 2,195 ft! Accompanying me were two other girls from the Connect program: Lisa (my roommate) and Ellie—who is from Scotland and recently set the record for climbing both Lion’s Head and Table Mountain in the same day! Although we had a bit of a late start, we caught a cab to the base of the mountain and by 11:30 we had began our strenuous hike. It took us a little less than an hour and a half to reach the top, but it definitely was not easy, especially with a temperature of nearly 432 degrees F.
The first fourth of the trail was just a regular old dusty red-dirt trail, reminding me somewhat of the national parks that I’ve visited outside of Las Vegas, with an incline that felt comparable to walking up Campion’s hill on the Seattle U. campus. Along that first stretch we ran into some paragliders (an actual professional company and their clients) who were jumping off the mountain and flying around like a human kite. They just kind of stand all prepared and wait for a big gush of wind and then run and leap off the mountain! It was so cool! They just catch the wind as if they’re riding a wave on a surfboard. It’s definitely something I plan to do within this next month. This made for a good rest stop for two reasons; 1) free entertainment! And 2) I was quickly able to down most of my Nalgene to compensate for the 30 gallons of sweat that I had just perspired.
Anyways, we continued along the path that gradually turned rockier, narrower, and steeper, for about the next 40 minutes. The last fourth of the hike resembled more of a climb than a hike. We climbed along boulders, climbed up ladders and even used handles, which were anchored into the rocks, to pull ourselves up. Let me just say right now, I’m much more out of shape than I originally thought… if that’s even possible. Regardless, I managed to make it to the top without any injuries.
The view at the summit was incredible, as was the view the entire time we were hiking. But, from the top we were able to see the city, the ocean, Table Mountain (of course) and coolest of all, Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years, during apartheid)! Lisa, Ellie and I ate a light lunch of fruit, crackers and Swedish fish, and rested for about 20 minutes before heading back down.
The way down was easier and definitely went by quicker. While descending we crossed paths (literally) with a church group who explained in passing that they were “climbing the mountain to pray to Jesus.” The fairly large group of black South Africans consisted of men, women, babies and children, most of which were hiking in flip flops (some were barefoot), carrying large drums, and wearing floor-length purple and white robes. I was in complete shock at their ambition and drive to complete such a task without basic gear (ie. water and shoes). I was almost tempted to turn around and follow them back up to the top to see what their prayer ceremony would look like, but we already were behind on our schedule and had planned to meet up with some other Connecters for a picnic dinner. Not to mention that by this point I was already feeling like my legs were going to fall off.
I’ll wrap this up just because I have so many more posts to write, but after we made our way back down to the base we decided to exercise a bit more and walked all the way back to our apartment. It took us a little more than an hour but it was all downhill. Needless to say, I’m physically exhausted and am focusing very hard on completing this post instead of crawling into bed. That said, I had a great weekend (I’ll write another post soon about Saturday’s adventure) and now I'll be going to bed. Goodnight!
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