13 Peaks and Segment 9: Chapman’s Peak and Noordhoek Peak Together…

Our Thirteen Peak Journey… continues… at this stage we had passed half way, and the peaks that we were most worried about… now it was hopefully a matter of going the distance. These two peaks are so close to each other that it made perfect sense to do them together…

At this stage in the challenge we knew what to pack and we knew what to wear and we knew what we could or couldn’t cope with on a given day… we so much better prepared than we were at the beginning of the challenge. Even the 4:30 am rise and shine on a Saturday morning was becoming our normal.

Chapman’s Peak

It was an early start, I am not sure if all of us were awake…

But the early start did mean that the hike to our first peak was almost entirely in the shade…

And that is a truly added bonus that we were all grateful for.

By the time the sun was up… we were so close to the top…

Just a pleasant hike up to the top…

And views…

For miles and miles…

And breakfast on a mountain top of course…

Once again we were baffled, this is a fairly easy hike… why is it not a more popular route… it is absolutely stunning and would make a fantastic sunset… Once again 13 Peaks taking us to places we had never been before.

And then down again… but not quite down to the start.

Noordhoek Peak

There is only one word for this peak, and it may be because it came back to back on another peak, but I fear it may just be the nature of Noordhoek Peak, it is a SLOG. A long and slow climb up the mountainside…

You have to get up the side of a massive mountain, there is no way round it… it is just a one foot in front of the other kind of a peak. Some of us were still full of energy…

But my get up and go had got up and gone… I had had it…

And my extremely patient family had to encourage me along…

Until these two elderly gentlemen came past and mention in their not so quiet whispers that “She was never going to get up that mountain before nightfall.” That was all I needed to hear… onwards and upwards in double time.

They were a little surprised to see me at the top… I was a little surprised myself. Once you get to the top of the mountainside there is a dirt road that takes you up, almost all the way to the peak.

I was so so happy with this one… it was hard, not because of the climbing, there wasn’t really any… just relentless and endless up and up and up…

I have been to Noordhoek Peak before, from the Silvermine side and always looked down on that path… and wondered where it went to, now thanks to 13 Peaks, I know it is the path from Chapman’s Peak and I no longer have to wonder, because I have in fact walked along it.

Defintiley a bucket list moment for me.

Down to Silvermine

Turns out I wasn’t the only one to be a little taken out by this peak. This turned out to be one of those team sport moments, somehow we got ourselves to the finish… a together or nothing kind of a day.

But we made it down to the dam at Silvermine and the magic of a refreshing swim…

From there it was a quick jog down to the gate at Silvermine Entrance, and we were done for the day… another substantial segment of the challenge done. All thanks to our Best Balega Socks…