Climbing a mountain

We left at 7:40am this morning to head to Table Mountain for a morning hike. Basically it's this huge mountain on one side of Cape Town that plateaus at the top, thus looking like a "table". We had a local guide, Pietro. He was in his 50's and going strong, such a great guide. He's Italian but moved to South Africa with his family when he was only ten. He use to work in management and around 54 decided he wanted to do more in his life. He was a joy of a guide and went slow for us (i.e. me). 

The walk was tough for me, I couldn't make it up two escalators in Dulles without breathing heavy ;). But the view from the top was amazing! We did an uphill portion, then one with less steep of a gradient and the last part was flat (the top). We rode a cable car down thankfully because we were all tired. The guide said we hiked six kilometers (felt like more!), around four miles or something. We made it to just over 1,000 meters above sea level (3,000+ feet I think). It was cool and sunny for most of the hike. The clouds thankfully didn't roll in until the very end. It was really beautiful and always nice to get some fresh air and exercise. We took it easy in the afternoon and evening but did manage to find some good (and cheap!) Italian for lunch and South African BBQ for dinner. We are eating well for sure :). 

Fresh in the morning..that's where we were headed. 

There were some ladders involved. 

And some rock climbing. 

But we made it!

That trail is one of the middle sections, we weren't quite at the top yet. 

Now we are :)

A map of the different trails. We went 4, 3, 2. 

The gang at the top: me, Stephanie, Brian, Mary 

Then the clouds rolled in and consumed everyone :)