Nine Days in South Africa: Wine, Penguins & Safari IV

9 Days in South Africa: Wine, Penguins & Safari (20 to 28 Feb 2020) Trip Report Menu

Day 1: Singapore – Stellenbosch
Day 2: Stellenbosch – Stony Point – Cape Town
Day 3: Cape Town – Old Biscuit Mill & Super Rugby
Day 4: Cape Town – Lion’s Head
Day 5: Cape Town – Bo Kaap, Chapman’s Drive, Cape Peninsula, Muizenberg, La Colombe
Day 6: Cape Town – Phinda
Day 7: Phinda
Day 8: Phinda
Day 9: Phinda – Singapore

Day 4: Cape Town – Lion’s Head

Despite Mrs woke up feeling a little under the weather, we still decided to take on the hike up Lion’s Head.

Our departure from the hotel coincided with Slave Route Challenge Run. Some of the roads in central Cape Town were closed and we had to take a slightly more roundabout route to the start of Lion’s Head trail.

Being a Sunday, it seemed that the other half of Cape Town who weren’t at the Slave Route Challenge were at Lion’s Head. There were no parking spaces available in the immediate vicinity of the trail head and we had to park several hundred metres away.

Lion’s Head, together with Table Mountain, is one of the most iconic geographical features of Cape Town and it’s a relatively easy 2-3 hour hike for most reasonably fit people. The trail head is slightly below 300m in elevation and the summit is 669m above sea level.

Eye on the prize

Camps Bay, the affluent suburb by Atlantic Ocean

Left to right: Clifton, Signal Hill and City Centre

There’s a choice between the short-cut of using ladders and climbing chains and the longer roundabout route. We chose the latter.

While making the final ascent, wife was feeling worse and we decided to turn back without reaching the summit.

Turning back

Honestly the trail wasn’t that easy as there were parts which require climbing and hanging onto chains. It was quite difficult to imagine how one can manage to go down in the dark after sunset.

That was the only activity of the day as Mrs felt sick. She suspected that she was allergic to tonic water; she experienced similar symptoms the following day after going to the gin bar in Ho Chi Minh City back in November.