A perfect winter’s day here in Africa. Update on the cultists: I saw a few close up and they seem very nice. I’ve started to find them reassuring. I also encountered some coming down from above Rhodes Memorial (I inferred they weren’t hikers as one seldom hikes with a large black hardcover book in hand). If people are going to be religious, I think incorporating serious physical activity is a cracking idea in our sedentary society. ...
I got to the mountain well early and got to see the first light hit Devil’s Peak. And yet I passed people coming down as I was going up. There’s a whole community of very fit people of all descriptions up there. It’s nice being proper fit again. I think there’s a threshold of fitness beyond which most exercise becomes much more enjoyable - challenging rather than trying. But it’s not easy for most people to reach that in systems that relentlessly encourage sedentary living. ...
Despite having some expensive sunglasses ruined by the wind ripping them off my shirt and skidding them - lenses down - for 50m across a tarred road, the irritation I woke up with couldnt stand up to Table Mountain Park at dawn. This has to be among the best city parks on Earth. I’m not quite fit enough to run up the steep mountainside to the “King’s Blockhouse” (a grandiose name for a very tiny little fort) so, since I was scrambling anyway, I could take my camera. I was remembering how this seemed like quite a big hike even as a teenager. I was clearly very unfit then.