Hiking up memory lane

Reading the article ‘Table Mountain: Trails Less Travelled’ (December 2018) brought back a flood of memories from my youth, specifically the two times I climbed the mountain as a teenager in the mid-70s.

I met with some hikers from my church’s youth group at a pre-arranged place early one morning during the September school holidays. We were filled with a sense of adventure, all of us ready to take on the indomitable Table Mountain. We climbed via Kasteelspoort, which took us to Breakfast Rock, a destination midway up the mountain. I was delighted to find that this traverse was ‘a walk in the park’ for me.

The next time, we went up Plattekloof Gorge, which was more strenuous and a bit of a crawl. We went right to the top and the surrounding views were breathtakingly beautiful.

I experienced ‘The Cloud’ for the first time that day – Table Mountain’s tablecloth – which settled over the landscape. The sun disappeared and it became cold, dark and wet; we lost direction but kept moving forward. Relief replaced our trepidation once we reached the foot of the mountain.

After this second hike, we met champion boxer, the late Mike Schutte, at a restaurant at the Cape Town Station, who entertained us with a guitar and a song. Afterwards he signed our serviettes with, ‘Yours in sport, Mike Schutte.’

– Donavon Christians, Port Elizabeth