Feb 13 2015
The Lion’s Head Hike
Table mountain towers over Cape Town and is absolutely worth a visit, however for the most panoramic view of Cape Town, Lion’s Head is the mountain to climb.
So it was that on a glorious sunny Tuesday evening in Cape Town our ragtag group of volunteers, friends and MBC kids arrived to tackle the behemoth in time for the sunset and supposedly spectacular full moon views. However we soon discovered that every tourist in the city along with a great majority of the local population had the same plan as us and we soon found ourselves shoulder to shoulder all the way up the climb which made for slow going at times.
After a brief stop to take some stunning panoramas above the clouds we pushed on up the climb looking to catch up with some of the frontrunning kids who were bounding gazelle like up the mountain despite the stifling heat. After around half an hour of gentle climbing we hit the main section of the hike which involved vertical climbing up ladders welded into the rockface. This slowed our progress considerably however we did get to feel like we were hanging over the edge of the world with sweeping clouds unfolding in every direction below us.
Arriving at the peak was if anything an unexpected surprise as the climb suddenly just stopped abruptly and there was Cape Town sprawling out below us, the glorious full moon we climbed to see slowly inching its way into the night sky. There are many breathtakingly sweeping views the world over that encapsulate what it means to live on our planet and at MBC we aim to show our participating kids how big and beautiful our world really is. By getting up Lions Head in time for the full moon we were lucky enough to witness how beautiful this country and this city can be both before and after dark.
