After leaving cars at the Hout Bay end, ten of us set off on the path up Vlakkenberg from Price Drive, Constantia, on the 23rd June in perfect weather. It was sad to see the destruction of the Silver Trees and all the alien seedlings that were sprouting after the fire, but many small Silver trees had also germinated. After a water stop at the top of the rock band, we headed for the beacon at the top of Vlakkenberg. Below us at the marshy valley that leads down to Bokkemanskloof we saw the rangers of SANParks, who we had asked to show a presence, as runners had been mugged a few days previously in the area.
On meeting up with them, we found that the lady in charge of that section of Table Mountain National Park, Elmonique Petersen, and four of her assistants wanted to hike down to East Fort with us! She and some of the others had never been along that route before and wanted to use the opportunity of our hike to familiarize themselves with the area. So we forged a good relationship with SANParks whilst walking down the long path to Hout Bay and over our lunch stop, with much chatting and showing them places such as the manganese mine. Thanks to Steven Craven who sent both them and all of us hikers a full history of the mine afterwards. We arrived at East Fort at 2pm and assembled for combined photographs before heading home.
Richard Goldschmidt
Photos supplied by Richard Goldschmidt.
