Table Mountain: Along the Contour Again

Date: 11 September 2009

Location: Table Mountain

Walkers: Delphi & Helen


**** Route plotted here ****

It is staying light late enough in the afternoon/evening now to enjoy a couple of hours out on the mountain after work before darkness falls. This particular evening Delphi and I headed up to Table Mountain, left a car at the start of Platteklip on Tafelberg Rd, and then drove back to Kloof Corner. The path zig-zags up the green hillside, leading up to the rock face.



There are always a fair number of flowers to be seen on this stretch - many of the ones we saw today were white and pink. They are (from the top): Hebenstretia (dentata?) , Protea speciosa, Lobostemon, Adenandra, Cyphia volubilis, and Scabiosa (or maybe Selago). The bottom two are probably some sort of Pelargonium, but an exact identification is beyond my skills at the moment! Edit: Got one. Bottom right is Lessertia capensis (not a Pelargonium)






The last section of the climb, up stone steps, really got the heart-rate up.



After a quick rest we left the sunshine behind us and followed the contour towards Devil's Peak. This section of the face of Table Mountain is in shadow late in the afternoon. We passed under the cableway.



There was a lot of moisture up against the rocks: many small streams and trickles, with ferns, moss, lichens and sundews growing profusely. We have had a really wet winter.



There were plenty of daisies (mostly closed up now that the sun had gone) and also Babiana. Lots of beautiful baby-blue Babiana!



No wonder its hard to make sense of all the Babiana species - sometimes the same thing is known by two names. I've just discovered that Babiana disticha and fragrans are one and the same. I'm pretty sure that's what the blues one are.



And I reckon this is Babiana ambigua. I love the intensity of the colour.



We continued along the path, behind the big waterfall - still flowing strongly- and down again on the path on the west side of Platteklip Gorge, back to our waiting car.


(Photos by Helen)
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