Started at the hostel "The Backback". Walked up along the road to the lower cable car station. Quite crowded there (later it turned out that the cable car was broken). Then along the road to the trailhead.
From there a steep 1.10h hike along the Platterklip Gorge. Many hikers, some annoyingly loud. No criminals although signs warn about them.
At the top the track splits, one can either walk to the upper cable car station or to the Maclear's Beacon. The top is flat, the surface is surprisingly swampy.
Most people go towards the cable car station (some 15 minutes away), we start walking in the other direction towards the highest point.
The beacon is just a heap of stones. Nice views to the bay and the Robben Island. We hear a signal which we think means that the cable car service has been stopped, and decide to descend along the route that leads through the Skeleton Gorge to the botanical gardens.
Nice fynbos vegetation and small waterfalls along the route. The Skeleton Gorge is very steep and hiking is supported by ladders. People are advised not to take this route in rainy weather. For us the weather is dry and even sunny at times.
After approx. an hour in the gorge reach the back entrance to the botanical gardens. Nobody asks for the entrance fee, it seems that people who have bothered to enter the gardens over the mountain get a free entrance.
Trip odometer: 13.5km Moving time: 4h 03min Total time: 5h 24min Moving average: 3.3km/h Overall average: 2.5km/h Time at start: 9:56 Time at finish: 15:20 Highest point: Maclear's Beacon (1086m)
Eat french fries (as elsewhere in Africa, these are actually called "chips") at the Kirstenbosch Tea Room. Two guineafowl walk by. Feed one of them. Guinefowl is quite scary if experienced at such close proximity.
Spend an hour in the garden. Too tired to focus on the plants. Fail to locate the fynbos section, although it's shown on the map.
Share a cab with two Italians back to town. The Italians participate in the gynecology conference (FIGO 2009) that is currently happening in Cape Town. They live in what seems to be the best hotel in town. As they don't speak any English it's time consuming to arrange the shared ride and later get them to pay their half of the price.
Later the cab takes us back to The Backpack where we meet the last three remaining Abs. Africa members who are just leaving Cape Town on a rented car on their way to some place that offers shark cage diving, and then to Joburg (?).