Hiking Devil's Peak!

Saturday morning, the fellow girl interns and I decided to hike Devil's Peak. Devil's Peak is the mountain below.  It is right next to Table Mountain and offers views all the way down to the Indian Ocean.  Devil's Peak stands at 1000 meters or 3,281 feet, just 87 meters shy of Table Mountain's height. There is a great story that I posted at the end of my last blog post about Van Hunks and Devil's Peak... definitely read it if you haven't yet. 

The night before the hike was extremely windy and rainy.  That morning the rain clouds and sun were competing with each other leading to this beautiful rainbow!  This picture does not do this rainbow justice... it was the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen! I had a bit of a "Double Rainbow" moment like the guy in the YouTube video with my "Perfect Rainbow"!

Lion's Head behind the perfect rainbow. I felt like I could see where it started and ended. I was tempted to try and find the pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow! Okay enough of the rainbows... I thought we weren't going to end up hiking because there was clouds on the mountain and wind and a bit of rain, but we decided to give it a go since the weather here is so fickle... one minute rainy and windy and the next minute sunny and beautiful.

 Here is a picture on our hike up.  That is Lion's Head in the middle, Table Mountain on the left, the Atlantic Ocean in the background and you can just see a bit of Cape Town city centre in the middle. Luckily, on the way up the weather wasn't too bad... but as we climbed it became colder and the wind got more ferocious.

The photo above was taken about 2/3s of the way up to the top of Devil's Peak.

You can see Green Point stadium in the background.  You can also see the Castle that I visited last weekend in about the middle right. It looks so small from up there!

 From the top of the saddle you can see all the way to Muizenberg and mountains all leading to Cape Point. That is the Indian Ocean in the background on the left.  That is the end of Table Mountain on the right.

 Same view as the picture above, but it doesn't do the view justice.  It was magnificent even on a day with low visibility like Saturday.

 That is Table Mountain in the background with fellow intern Katie. I think this picture is really cool.

 View from about 10 meters to the top.

 Kelly made it to the top first. The ugly white pole signifies the highest point.

 View from the top. Beautiful!  It was so windy up there!

 Literally about 10 seconds after I got to the top and snapped this photo the clouds rolled in.

 By the time I had someone take a photo of me... the visibility was almost 0%... you can barely make out the city below.  We all joked that we could have taken our photos from the top anywhere that had an ugly white pole... we could have just been on the streets of Cape Town somewhere.

Until I came to Cape Town and hiked Lion's Head and then Devil's Peak on Saturday, I had never hiked a mountain before.  I absolutely love it! There is a huge amount of satisfaction in climbing a mountain and reaching the top.  As corny as it sounds I think you can relate it to life a lot. You push hard, dig deep in many sections to get to the top.  Once you are there you know there is still a lot of work ahead of you but the satisfaction is amazing. Then you head down the mountain, and it's not easy.  On our hike down, the wind picked up even more and it rained a bit.  I even fell a few times. Once you are down, all you want to do is go up another mountain sometime soon. I really love hiking and hope to continue it with Beth and Shawn in the Appalachian Mountains this fall.

 Picture from on the hike down.

 Table Mountain on the left. Atlantic Ocean in the background.

 So I know I already posted this photo, but I just want to show you how fickle the weather is here.  This photo was taken just an hour after we finished our hike.  Blue skies and sun! Then about an hour or two after this... there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

These are photos of the view from the top on a perfect day. Above is the view of the Indian Ocean, Table Mountain, Lion's Head, City Centre, and the Atlantic Ocean (from left to right). And below is a picture of from city centre, Atlantic Ocean, and the Northern Suburbs (left to right).