Hikes

20 years ago if you asked me to go on a hike, I complained, had to be bribed with M+Ms, and "hated" it! I am also NOT a morning person.  So many would be surprised to learn that I agreed to wake up at 6 am last Sunday for a hike! My how things change, as I now love hiking ;) But really, who could refuse a hike with views like this one?

When people think of Cape Town, they often think of Table Mountain, but Table Mountain is actually one mountain in a whole mountain range and there are tons of awesome hikes.  One of the participants, Allan, who attended the training that I conducted last week, asked me if I wanted to join him and a few of his friends for a hike.  I would have preferred to start a bit later in the day, but people here like to get up early.  We drove to Noordhoek, a suburb of Cape Town and ended up hiking for 4 hours.  It was a beautiful day and we were joined by two gorgeous and super well behaved dogs.  We went along the trail at Silvermine and ended up in Elephant's Eye cave (which is where the picture above was taken).  From there you can look out on the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town.  Interestingly it is a great view of Pollsmoor Prison (an infamous high security prison in South Africa) which is situated right next to an extremely posh golf course community!  How is that for interesting zoning?

Here is a slideshow of the day:


The previous Sunday I also went hiking.  This time up Table Mountain.  I have been up Table Mountain a few times, but always on the cable car.  It was probably not the best idea to try to hike it the day after fasting for Yom Kippur when it was 90+ degrees out, but I made it.  I went with Bev (who I met at a Rosh Hashanah dinner) and her friend Jon.  It was nice that I got to attend services this year for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, though it did make me miss B'nai Keshet and it's fabulous co-presidents even more ;) We went up the most direct route which is basically straight up and it is in the sun the whole way.  It was a rough hike and next time I will make sure to drink water and eat the day before ;) But it was worth the sense of accomplishment at the end!

Here are some photos from that day: