Seven of us set off at 6:15am and tackled Table Mountain’s seven highest named summits, each over 900m. It took us 10.5 hours and we covered 19km from Camps Bay and back. Our ascent was via Porcupine Ravine and by 08:45 we were on Blinkwater summit admiring the far reaching views in the early morning lighting.
Fountain was our next target but we had to first descend to Echo Valley! A welcome tea break was enjoyed on Fountain summit. We then followed the table top edge path to Maclears Beacon which we reached at 10:40 and set our sights on Fernwood. The burnt out terrain had obliterated the faint path but made the approach easy. We were also able to take a bearing directly to our next objective which was Waaikoppie and lunch, arriving soon after 12 noon. This is an underrated view peak and we just managed to all fit on the summit and soak up the views while we had lunch.
St Michaels was next in line via the Kitchen Ravine path and we reached the summit at 1:15pm. We carried on from the summit along the ridge and took an off path route down to Backwater stream which we followed to Disa Stream below Junction Peak. By now we had been going for 7.5 hours and the pools in Disa Stream beckoned. A quick removal of boots saw two of us take a refreshing plunge to gather strength for the final push up Junction Peak which we reached at 2:30pm.
We enjoyed a relaxing tea in Junction cave on the way down before setting out on our return journey via Kasteels Poort. We reached the cars by 4:45pm.
We were fortunate to see wonderful specimens of Blue, Yellow and Red Disa along the way and also Klipspringer and Himalayan Tahrs.
Photos by Don Jepson
