Toiling to the top

A fresh southeaster has sprung up in midwinter and we are promised a series of cold fronts coming straight up from the South Atlantic with polar air for next week. Not a normal weather pattern, but anything that brings rain will be welcome. The southeaster, however, is not our favourite wind - it brings out the worst in people with its incessant battering of the Peninsula, blowing branches off trees, swirling dust in mini-whirlwinds and banging doors and gates left inadvertently open. The only good it brings is the Cape Doctor, dispersing the smog from Cape Town and sending it far out to sea, never to return.
It was particularly strong up on the Glencairn mountains, where we hiked today, and although it kept us cool, we definitely had to work harder as we laboured against it. The track from the road up to Rooikrantz winds up through hills decorated by wind-weathered sandstone rock formations and covered in lush new growth of fynbos after yet another devastating fire a few years ago, with an unobstructed view across this pretty plateau snaking down the southern Peninsula. I have never been up there before and so was amazed by the views and what is easily accessible on our doorstep - flowers that are unique to this area, many good tracks all over the mountains, a bird's eye view of what is going on the (regrettably overdeveloped) valley and the opportunity to sit on a rock and let the cares of the world blow away in the wind!
Go there.