One of the many pleasures of living in Cape Town is the abundance of walks. I’ve lived here all my life, and would like to think I’ve explored all of the possible walks in the vicinity, but I know that’s not nearly the case, and I always enjoy new discoveries.
Today I explored a new walk, within walking distance of where I live. I’ve passed it countless times on the Glencairn Expressway, but have never walked it until today (to be pedantic, seeing as it’s 02h43, yesterday, but my day is from when I wake up until when I go to sleep). I’m not entirely sure of the name, but I think I ended up on Brakkloofrant, a peak with views over Fish Hoek, Glencairn, Noordhoek, as well as Muizenberg and the lakes in the distance. It’s a really easy walk, but seems hardly used, and I lost the path both going up and down. Some bundu-bashing over recently cleared Port Jackson’s didn’t make the walk any easier, and my clothes did end up with a few more holes.
There are many cliched dualisms that never quite reflect the truth of the matter. Dog and cat people. Heterosexual and Homosexual. Mountain and sea people. Of the latter, Cape Town is fortunate enough to have the terrain to appease both, but I tend towards mountain. I can survive long periods without going to the beach, or swimming in the sea, but if I go too long (as I have) without sitting on top of a mountain, I tend to go a little crazy. There’s something that feeds me when I sit on a rock, as the poet Gary Snyder says, looking down for miles through high, still air. So today was long overdue.
I surprised myself by not getting out of breath, but the walk really was easy. I left at 15h00, and go back at around 18h00. Perhaps all the organic food I’ve been eating helps 🙂 I recently joined a local co-op that provides incredible organic food, at a really cheap price. I’ve usually been frequenting Woolworths, but they’re quite pricy, and use way too much packaging. The organic food sometimes also comes from quite far afield. The co-op tries to source most of its good as locally as possible, so the veggies are fresh. The organic milk is especially fantastic – creamy, and bringing back memories of childhood, before the advent of supermarkets and the white water that passes for milk. It’s called the Ethical Co-Op, and they also supply organic cleaning materials, honey, hopefully pet food too. They’ve been going for three weeks, and their product list is growing rapidly – if you’re interested, contact me and I’ll pass on their email address.
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