Kanonkop climb

After a few days' hiking in the Cederberg, it was back to familiar territory down at Cape Point on Friday! Kanonkop was our goal and again it turned out that winter was more like summer as the day grew progressively warmer in proportion to the length of the walk. Jackets were shed and short sleeves were more than adequate as we turned away from the wind and entered the leeward side of the Peninsula. This fairly strenuous trail from the Information Centre entails a steady climb over a ridge or two until you come to the vantage point where the old cannon still stands guard over the entrance to False Bay - long de-commissioned! One can only marvel at the slow pace of life in those days, when a cannon fired to announce the arrival of a ship would be repeated at intervals along the coastline until the authorities became aware of the event in the settlement at Simon's Town and could take appropriate action some days later.
Groups of youngsters from the Chrysalis Academy (about 100) crossed our path, laden with backpack, sleeping roll and cookware. Rumour had it that they had walked from Tokai and were going back again but it is more likely that they are doing a 3-day trail - good to see outdoor activities on the agenda. Of course, we had to step back into the fynbos to let them go by otherwise we would have been flattened in the rush - their next stop was for lunch.
The views from Kanonkop are marvellous, stretching across towards Hangklip and beyond, down to the lighthouse at Cape Point, and giving a bird's eye view of the crystal clear shallows below at Buffels Bay - worth every moment of the climbing effort. We descended the steep track down to sea level and started the slog up the hill back to the cars on tar. Our intrepid leader then turned back onto the mountain and we plodded onwards, ever onwards and upwards until we reached the corresponding level of the Info Centre - a considerable climb - and then we levelled out to a steady pace, culminating our hike after 4 hours, 14 000 steps and some 9.5 kilometres later. Exercise indeed!

A huge tortoise, must have been 40cm end to end or more