Snow on Victoria Peak - A rare event for Cape Town.

in family •  8 years ago 

My son and I decided a few weeks ago to hike to Victoria Peak. The reason was because I spotted snow on top of it - a rare event for Cape Town. Our journey started about 8 o'clock in the morning at the bottom of the Jonkershoek valley. Our destination, Victoria Peak, is about 12 km away and a climb of just over 1 km. The total distance of the hike in one day is about 24 km. At the point where we started is about 500 m above sea level and on Victoria Peak we will be about 600 m above sea level. The highest point on Table Mountain (Mclear's beacon) is about 1000 m above sea level.


I was about 3 hours hike to point where we can look down into the valley from the top of the Stellenbosch mountain.


The top of Stellenbosh mountain is flat and like a march. We had to cross it to get to Vic Peak. In the first photo, you can see Victoria peak in the background. The second and third photo is on the slope of Victoria peak, One can see the snow (it is more ice than snow) is becoming thicker.


In the first photo, ​we were approaching the peak self. At this stage, I was already very tired. When we reached the peak, there was already another group. Very disturbing fact was that I found bicycle tracks (second photo) in the snow and this on route which is difficult to hike.... Unfortunately, the imprint was made the previous day and I could not solve the riddle. The third photo is the evidence that we actually made it. On the left of the photo, you can see a bit of the marker which indicates the highest point of the peak. We reached the peak about 1 o'clock that afternoon (about 5 hours walk)


In the first photo we built a snowman. The only reason why it is so small is because snow/ice is very cold on bare hands. It took us about 4 hours to reach the bottom of the valley again (the second photo). We left the nature reserve with 10 minutes to spare before closure time. The total time of the hike was just under 10 hours.

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Thanks!

no worries, great work

looks like some great family time. i'm glad you were able to enjoy and take photos at the same time to share with us!

It was good father and son time. It is now his last year in school. The time is running out for him to be a child in the house. Treasure these times a lot!

Sounds great, this is actualy quite simulare nature that we have in Norway in the spring time.
Soon and father time is wery important. Im glad you can do this great trip together.
Hope for more simular post in the future. I have a dougther, she is 1 and 1/2 month now, i dont hope the time goes so fast that shee move out beafore i understand it. So enjoy the thime together beafore he moves out :)

Here in Bergen where i live, it is almost every day raining lol. Finaly now we get some sun over here. But you should truy to walk in the nice mountains here.

Norway is on my bucket list to visit one day. The mountains and hikes must be beautiful!

Nice to hear.
Yess it is maby one of the finest nature in the world, alot of mountains and fjords.
You would love it :)

It was my first snowman. in South Africa snow is not something you grow up with. You need to go and search for it.

Awesome job!

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

I live in Japan. Thank you for the very beautiful photo
I hope you and happiness of your family.

Mount Fuji. What a great sight it must be. Thanks for the happiness!

I am feeling the bern on here!

Lovely photos. The case of the mysterious snowy bicycle tracks, sounds like an unsolved case for Hercule Poirot :)

:) nice one

I live in Thailand.
Today is Very Hot!! lol

hahaha

Great post! Cape Town is my hometown so felt good to see an adventure story here. My husband and I are currently living in Laos (far from home hehe). Please check out our latest post:
https://steemit.com/lemongrass/@dka/living-in-laos-steemy-food-dna-adventures

Great post of yours. Gave you an upvote!

good photos thank you for share