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Home , Newlands Forest, Rhodes Memorial, Signal Hill (Cape Town), Table Mountain, Table Mountain Challenge

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The runner The volunteer

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TALES of TABLE ANCIENT ICON, NEW WORLD WONDER: ’S LEGENDARY BEAUTY CARESSES THE CITY THAT SURROUNDS HER. IN CELEBRATION OF ‘THE MOUNTAIN’, JANINE STEPHEN ASKS SEVEN CAPETONIANS WHAT THE LANDMARK MEANS TO THEM

PORTRAITS by MICHAEL ELLIS The baker

The researcher

The herbalist Cape Town

‘When you’re up there, especially at night, and you have wafts of the city blowing in, and you see lights and you’re very much above it all, it’s a different psychic space. It’s as if the dreams of the city rise, like hot air… there’s that space where dreams are, alongside the real. It’s that more ethereal spirit that is what’s interesting to me about the mountain. Capturing that is like the snow of photography. Not easy, but that’s the challenge. I’m not trying to document everyone on the mountain. ‘Table Mountain is like 260 million years old, ancient. It’s sat there, unmoving and unchanged, a witness to human history – from when rolled in and brought farms and slavery, to the removal of . ‘When I rst moved to Cape Town I remember Table Mountain as this big, intense presence. Jo’burg is really sparse in terms of nature and I’d always go hunting for a view, for personal space – but it would be the top of a koppie or something, limited and kind of dodgy… and suddenly there was this space. It ALEXIA was an incredible resource for a city kid, a daily relationship with the mountain. WEBSTER Now I live against ; my back A photographer in the door opens out to the mountain and midst of a personal I really feel like it’s got my back – it’s project that focuses strong and present. on the mountain ‘About two years ago I was on the mountain with friends in the moonlight; FIRST VISIT it was so bright it was almost like we were At age eight, on holiday getting sunburnt. And suddenly we saw with her parents. two unknown men coming towards us, with knobkieries [wooden clubs], in this TOP SPOT A walk that circles ’s Head. Also the silver trees above , ‘like old majestic creatures, shimmering silver when the wind blows through them’.

ALWAYS PACKS A camera, even if it’s just a mobile phone. ‘Because the mountain is so changing and shifting, there are these surprising, spectacular moments’. Alexia Webster, Gallo/Getty Images bewitched, haunted landscape. They came closer and closer, until we could see this younger and older man, wearing Zionist Christian Church badges. They greeted us and passed, walking off into the forest. And I thought: I want to follow them. They must have been on a magical, spiritual journey. ‘It made me start thinking about what the mountain gives to people: a psychic or spiritual or healing thing… There are so many religious ceremonies held on the mountain, from Muslim to Christian to pagan. It makes sense: if you’re looking for a god, you’re probably going to nd it on the mountain. ‘I came across some young Congolese families in the parking lot one day. They’d been doing this epic religious journey for days – at a particular spot under a beautiful canopied tree. That day they were “crossing the River Jordan”. These were recent immigrants; they’d done a real journey or pilgrimage to , and now they were having their spirits catch up with their bodies. A lot of it was about being settled, nding work and success. My mother’s family are from Greece; her parents arrived here from a poor village and tried really hard to make this new life… And I thought about how the mountain was neutral space. And the rest of the city is not. ‘The idea of the mountain as public space is important to me. People – all kinds of people – are claiming the mountain as a human, inclusive space, even as there is this desire to keep it exclusive. But this is our mountain. It is for everybody and that is incredibly rare and incredibly beautiful.’ Cape Town

‘I had to ask for directions to get to Table batter on a busy day, and bake eight milk tarts. Or Mountain for my job interview. But I thought the 800 biscuits daily for the children’s special mountain was just beautiful, amazing. I stood – shaped like a dassie, using white icing and here for quite some time, just looking around, shortcrust pastry. you know? It was a hot day, and I remember ‘One lady comes to the kiosk twice a week, seeing Chinese people, who I don’t see down just for my apple crumbles. She leaves me a in the city – actually, all sorts of foreigners. message to say that they are amazing. Sometimes I remember thinking, “Yoh! I’m far away; I’m I wonder, is it me that’s doing all this? I work not even in Cape Town.” Nowadays, until 4. People are still I can give tourists directions. coming up as I leave. ‘I wake up 3.30, do my chores OCTAVIA ‘Every few days I go up to and cook porridge for my three the top of the mountain to kids. Then I take the train from TUMEKA check on supplies. The rst to town, and the 6.18 time was incredible, seeing MyCiti bus to the mountain. It’s so NKOMOMBINI those tiny people walking peaceful and quiet when I arrive; A baker who works in up, the pathways on top, the I see the sunrise. My day starts at the tiny, round kitchen view. And the dassies… and 7. I bake chocolate cake, carrot at the lower Cableway everyone is talking different cake, lemon meringue, milk tart, station, supplying languages. mini apple pies and muf ns, the café on top of the ‘I don’t get used to the biscuits and a pudding called the mountain and the kiosk cable car trip; every time “bakery special” for the restaurant. I go, it’s like, wow! I still want We can mix up to 55kg of chocolate FIRST VISIT to walk up one day; that’s As a baby, with her in my plans. It is a wonder, father. Her next Table Mountain. Everyone visit was at age 35, who comes here wants to when she came to come back; people from the Cableway for all walks of life. And the a job interview. mountain inuences us: it gives you peace, it makes TOP SPOT you feel close to nature. The deck on Tafelberg I brought a friend from Road in the early Kimberley last year. We morning, when the air took the lift up to level ve. is fresh. ‘You feel on And there was this tourist top of the world.’ by the cable car, and she grabbed him to pose [for ALWAYS PACKS a picture]. I thought, “What Water and sunscreen; if he has a wife or girlfriend?” a jersey for trips to the But he seemed to enjoy it. summit. ‘My dad has visited. He’s proud of me. We’re not that close, but I gave him tickets to come up and he loved it; the last time he’d been here was when I was a baby. He’s got a very sweet tooth, my dad. ‘Working here has changed me. One, it’s given me peace. And the support I get has changed me from being a negative person to a positive person who is seeing differently now. I feel like I’m blessed to work here, to have a place like this. You just don’t get that stress.’ tablemountain.net Gallo/Getty Images Gallo/Getty ‘For the past nine years I’ve run thousands of kilometres over and around Table Mountain. I’m currently training for a run across North Korea with my running partner, Andrew Stuart – we need to be ready to go, so we’re ramping it up. I do all my journeys for a reason; for a charity. But also to nd out more about myself. ‘The mountain has always been that gauge to my mental and physical state, integral to my preparation. There are places and points on the mountain that I judge my tness by. I know that when I can make a certain point in a certain time, I’m ready. It can take ve or six months of training to get there, but when you conquer that point you’re physically ready and mentally you believe you can achieve the goal – the two come in unison. If I get up Newlands Ravine in under 45 minutes, I’m getting there. ‘When I was training for DAVID GRIER the Great Wall of China run Adventurer and extreme [4,200km in 93 days] I ran runner who uses three times a day on the Table Mountain as mountain for three months: his training ground one-and-a-half or two-hour sessions. But my most intense FIRST VISIT encounter with the mountain As a schoolboy, was last year when we did the planting yellowwoods Mad Run: seven times around in . Table Mountain in seven days to put kids through surgery. TOP SPOT The mountain, the Seventh At the back of Wonder, was the catalyst. It Orangekloof, a gorge took us an average of six hours with natural jungle said they’d never felt so free and a day: from the bottom car lot ‘full of disas and safe and protected. We don’t at Kloof Nek, around the front yellowwoods’. realise what it does to people. to the blockhouse, then the ‘I’ve run every single piece contour path up and around to ALWAYS PACKS of Table Mountain. Often we Orangekloof, up Noordhoek A jacket, phone and come down on the cable car, Peak behind Suikerbossie, space blanket – plus otherwise it’s too hard on the all along the top and the 12 water if it’s hot (he knees. Every now and then I Apostles, down Kasteelspoort and trains with as little get smacked by Mother Dear – back to the front. It was hectic. liquid as possible). I fall hard sometimes; I’ve had But we raised over R200,000. stitches. No matter the route, ‘The mountain’s this nurturing you get entranced by the beauty structure in the middle of a city; it’s central to and aura of what’s around you. It can be 40 everything. Mayhem and chaos surrounds it all degrees in summer, and in winter you can catch day, but you can get to the top in the middle snowakes. But I’ll never go out without a jacket. of the week and you’re the only person there. That mountain: you respect it. She changes her I see more and more people from different mood quickly.’ communities using the mountain, escaping into this tranquil space. I once took a group of girls from to the Pipe Track; they Cape Town

‘I didn’t know a lot about Table Mountain before what I’d captured just by listening. I somehow I arrived to begin the study in September had an assumption that would be nearly 2014. Starting out was pretty overwhelming; equivalent to bobcats, but when we caught “C1” everything was more dif cult – I had to have or Laduma, I didn’t have to see him – I knew cages specially built, whereas in the US you’d just I’d caught a caracal by the sound. He was erce. order them online. There’s the overwhelming ‘I quickly found that bobcats cover a lot less beauty of the mountain, but I’ve also had a trap territory than caracals. We had this expectation and cameras stolen, and the re [earlier this that Laduma would use the Front Table and year] burned a third of my research area. There Signal Hill, and that would be it. But before we has been a lot to adapt to. knew it he was using Orangekloof ‘Trapping caracals, you’re and Rhodes Memorial and the trying to understand their Back Table and Kirstenbosch and biology and how they see the . He’s been all the way landscape. I enjoy the challenge to Noordhoek! This is a species of moving through the , that’s solitary and territorial, and and trying to recognise how it raises the question: how many other animals use the landscape other males can be in the same and leave trails – so in dense area? He’s also preyed on very areas with older , you different species, from guinea have to get down to ground fowl to grysbok. level and look for signs of, say, ‘I’m hoping to collar at least how a mongoose creates a trail. ten to 15 animals, but it’s been ‘I’ve been to hundreds DR LAUREL tough [Serieys had reached nine of animal captures, from SERIEYS by print time]. We’ve seen some bobcats to mountain to interesting behaviour. A female Urban carnivore coyotes. These animals have in Noordhoek hunts on the specialist and personalities – or behavioural beach – shore birds. She killed an coordinator of the Urban differences between the oystercatcher. Super cool, hey? Caracal Project, a species. In the US, I could tell ‘Table Mountain National Park study being undertaken is a very disturbed environment, in Table Mountain despite the fact that so many National Park people come here to experience pristine nature. Rapid change FIRST VISIT has been imposed on species. Google , from Not just animals – predators California. In the flesh, affect the small mammals, which with SANParks rangers affects the plant life that so many to familiarise herself people come to see. with the terrain and area. ‘I regularly walk more than 20km a day. I can’t trap animals TOP SPOT on trails, so I have to go off-road ‘I saw my first free and that’s special – I go places caracal near the people don’t get to see. There antelope paddocks are some unbelievably beautiful [near Rhodes Memorial], ravines. I don’t hike for fun; so I do like that area.’ I like to be working because then you’re exploring, and thinking ALWAYS PACKS about how the animals use areas, A taser and pepper and searching for spoor. You also spray, bobcat pee see a lot of human activity: trash, (for traps), water, cable sleeping spots, even places people ties, a hammer, a multi- go to have sex. It’s learning the tool, knife, blow pipe mountain in a whole different with darts, radio collars. way.’ urbancaracal.org Gallo/Getty Images Gallo/Getty ‘We take kids on day hikes or sleep-overs. Newlands Forest is good for young children; they can walk under the canopy of the trees, see the river owing, take their shoes off and play in the water. If it’s early, I show them spider webs full of dew drops that I call crystal bracelets. Sometimes we’re just silent and listen to the birds. I always tell them they’re all part of this mountain; their families share the history of this city. Up at the Woodhead Dam, I show them names of workers written on stone: old Cape names, some of which they share. Or at the Woodhead Tunnel, depending on the wind, a draft can suck air in or blow it out like a ghost. The children stand close and their ASLAM LEVY hair moves… A volunteer with ‘I grew up in District Six but SANParks, who despite ended up in Mitchell’s Plain. a 9-to-5 job takes young Scouting and getting into nature people to the mountain, opened doors for me; a normal teaches safety and helps child in the District wouldn’t with rescues have had that. I wouldn’t be the same person. Differences aren’t FIRST VISIT important on the mountain – A sleep-over at the everyone gets as tired. On the ruins near Deer Park mountain you get to grips with with his Scout group yourself: what your strengths as a young boy. ‘It was are, who you are. The mountain my first experience of has grown into me. the mountain and it felt have gone, “Oy! Steer back, ‘Since Table Mountain was wild, like we were in just steer back!” You wouldn’t named a New Seventh Wonder, the jungle – there was want to cross their paths. even more people want to this feeling of creatures I got them into an isolated climb it. Platteklip can be like around, like baboons. area and asked them to scatter, a supermarket mall with so many We never encountered to nd a space on their own people going up and down. The them, but the possibility – focus on a tree or a cloud, paths are getting quite a beating, was amazing.’ anything, and listen to my and there’s erosion. But you can voice. And I asked them to think still sometimes spot caracal and TOP SPOT back on the rst time they’d porcupine in Orangekloof, or A flat rock above hurt someone, and imagine pick up spoor. You can only say Africa Ravine and the the person’s face. And I took you know the mountain fairly Tranquility Cracks. them right through their actions well, because there’s always and consequences. At the end, something new to learn. And it ALWAYS PACKS you could see the relief and can be dangerous, which is why Weather-appropriate the hardship on their faces. we teach safety. The thing people gear, dates and a Fizzer, Some had never been on misjudge the most is going off- water, first-aid kit. Tafelberg Road, let alone the route, taking shortcuts but not mountain. For guys like that knowing where they’re going. Or to come to me and say thank they go ill-equipped: no water, in ip-ops… you … there’s no money that pays anything ‘We offer disadvantaged youth empowerment like that feeling.’ programmes and tour guide training, too. Once I took what they call problem kids – in drugs, in gangsterism – for a hike. If you’d seen us you’d Cape Town

‘Nature teaches you to be humble. If you walk advanced. Now I prepare packages of mixed in nature, it cools you down; it’s good for the herbs, like this one for skin problems (with soul. My mother was born a ower seller like lavender, rosemary, kruidjie-roer-my-nie and wild her mom; she sold owers in Trafalgar Square, dagga). I also prepare extractions with an olive near the Standard Bank. When oil base: I use sun energy to cook I was young I’d help my mom, the herbs for 14 days, which too, but I wasn’t so interested NEVILLE VAN adds more to the healing. I’ve in nature. I found a job in the come so far that I’ve created an navy, and another at . SCHALKWYK oil for muscle pain which works But my life started when A Rastafarian herbalist in ve minutes. I decided to work with herbs, who gathers plants ‘Herbalists don’t always follow about 30 years ago. and grows herbs in the paths on the mountain, so ‘I went to sleep one night, his own garden in we come across a lot of nature woke up and decided this was Seawinds. Also works – , spiders. We treat them my path. The rst time I went on a ‘herbanisation’ with the respect we give anyone. into the – out in programme with the Table Mountain has the best Stellenbosch – it was like new Sustainable Livelihoods setting for any walk, and the life had been breathed into me. Foundation, which atness of the mountain is very Now I had a purpose, to heal grows medicinal plants picturesque from a distance. people. And my relationship for the community There is so much energy on with nature changed. (livelihoods.org.za) this mountain from all the ‘I learnt about plants from cleansings and rituals held on other Rastas – back then there FIRST VISIT it. When you walk there, you were only a few, you could To pick flowers as interact with Creation, be it count them on your ngers; a child. physically or spiritually, you now we are thousands [2,500, understand? But it touches you, researchers say]. I also got a TOP SPOT it brings healing, de nitely. No well full of knowledge from . ‘When I was one can walk off the mountain a lady who used to sell herbs a Scout I’d go and play without feeling calmed down.’ on the Parade, Aunty Maria. and sleep in a cave on People need herbs every day – the mountain, and later see that woman, she’s come to I regularly harvested pick herbs for sugar diabetes. herbs there. It’s also Nature needs help now, the only mountain I’ve because of urbanisation, so the stood naked on – open more plants we can grow the arms, feel the breeze. better for the environment and I don’t know why, but the community. I just felt free.’ ‘Of course, picking herbs in the National Park is not ALWAYS PACKS allowed. Yet the mountain has An empty herb bag. been created for everybody. We have dominion over the Earth because we can reason, but we all need to share what is on Earth – whether you’re hiking or walking in the veld or picking sour gs. ‘This is crystallised dassie urine; it’s good for womb ailments or pains and also treats kidney and gallbladder stones. Wild celery grows on Table Mountain; you take it for water retention and high blood pressure (it’s also called the blister bush – when you handle it too much it tends to leave blisters on your hands). As my knowledge has grown, I have become more Gallo/Getty Images Gallo/Getty

Cape Town

‘Fire can be quite a beast. It’s an entity with a life of its own and MICHAEL BOYD you can’t really control it – you A history masters can contain it sometimes, but student and volunteer otherwise you just do your best: with the Volunteer anticipate it and deal with it as it Wild re Services goes about doing what it’s going to do. Fighting re is dif cult to FIRST VISIT describe. It’s extremely hot, so To Kirstenbosch hot you’re sweating continuously. Garden as a child Sometimes you just have to step (his family is Southern back. Sometimes your boots will Suburbs based). catch alight. And the sound, the crackling: a big tree burning is an TOP SPOT incredible, unnerving sound. Elephant’s Eye – ‘before ‘I joined the Volunteer Wild re the March 2015’ fires Services when I was 18 and it sort [it’s currently off-limits]. of took over my life; I concentrated more on re ghting than varsity ALWAYS PACKS because I enjoyed it so much. I’d A ‘standard’ pack that actually thought of joining the weighs about 14kg, re department after school, but containing ‘six or seven my parents said “Hey, you’ve got litres’ of water, food, into Uni now”… so I researched a tea kit, rain gear, a volunteering and went to a When Elephant’s Eye burnt machete and hand recruitment meeting at Newlands it was sad. And when it hit tool, and a dry change rebase. They described what they Tokai Forest, that wasn’t of clothes (‘because did as “high speed gardening”, a good day. I used to run there a lot of the time we because a lot of the time there’s no every Friday, and it was just so get dropped on by the access to water so we use tools to beautiful, with the views and water helicopter’). chop away vegetation and create the sound of the water and rebreaks. We use a rake hoe to the little animals now and then. clear vegetation down to the soil. How fast can ‘As a history student, I know a little about how I clear ten metres? Depends how close the re is! runaways and fugitives from society would once We also use beaters – a broomstick with a oppy hide out on the mountain. Everyone I know has appendage – to smother ames. this intense passion and love for the mountain ‘In your rst re season, the most important – you can’t usually nd anyone who doesn’t. thing is to learn to pace yourself; you need to Where else in the world is there a city where you avoid dehydration and heat stroke. Training can go out and hike in this kind of beauty? And includes map work, basic rst-aid, and using it heals fast. After the re, I was privileged to see pumps and hoses. I remember a session in Deer some of the regrowth areas, and it’s beautiful – Park once, at night, when I was pretty new to all these green shoots among the ash.’ vws.org.za it. They started the pump and the leader says: “You! Take that hose up that embankment.” It was steep, and I didn’t realise I had to switch the hose off, so I created an absolute mud bath. The guys thought it was the funniest thing ever. ‘This last mountain re [over four days in GET GOING March] was so big it felt like everywhere was on DESTINATION: CAPE TOWN re, leaving just wasteland behind. It was like Mordor [from Lord of the Rings]: this land of The , a 40km trail run, is on re and ash. We’d hold a line one day and drive 12 September. For more info on Table Mountain National past it the next and everything would be gone. Park, visit sanparks.org. British Airways ies to Cape Town from Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and London. Visit ba.com. Gallo/Getty Images Gallo/Getty