13 Peaks and Segment 6: Little Lions Head…

On with our Thirteen Peak Journey and Little Lion’s Head… This is the one peak that I was really nervous about. Everybody warned us that this was extremely technical and to brace ourselves for a tough one. In retrospect this turned out to be our favourite Peak of them all…

Of course an early start…

Before the sun was up…

It’s a bit of a scramble to the start…

And the views just opened up, all the way!!!

Spirits were high and we made our way up to the start of the rocky climb…

And then onwards and upwards to the very top… and yes the scrambles were significant, but I could do them, so most likely anyone can!!!

Definitely not one of those hikes where you want to get left behind…

We all made it!!!

And once again… breakfast on a mountain top…

Views from the Top…

And before us… the next peak, Suther Peak.

Followed by A Tricky Descent…

We decided that rather than going on the way we had come, and running back through Hout Bay, that we would do the “up and over. A lot of folk said we were mad, and warned us about the tricky descent… but we decided that it would be worth it.

I managed it…

But there is no denying, this was more than a little technical!!!

I made it down… and I was still smiling.

Beware of Trespassing

We met another group of hikers and followed them down to Hout Bay and off the trails…

There is a lot of signage here… and we went through the only open gate. When we got to the bottom of the hill we couldn’t find a way out through the fence and a man working in one of the neighbouring properties told us that the security would be with us in moments. He was right…

We were all forced to make our way (on tired legs) back up the hill, and over the boom, which we had assumed was a closed gate…

From there we were encouraged to go down to Sandy Bay…

And then back up over the sand dunes to the car park.

It is called Sandy Bay for a reason…

At this stage enthusiasm was low… except for one…

So we decided not to start the next peak, but to save it for another time. So we made our way across Hout Bay, where there are plenty of stores and cafes, to stop and get rewards for a mission accomplished, and it was the nearest we had been to a beach in months.

I have said it before and I will say it again… the hard part about Thirteen Peaks is not so much the peaks, but the distance between them. And so any miles we could make up on a peak day… to get across to another peak was always considered a lucky bonus…