Up Nursery to Maclears Beacon

An ambitious plan to walk at Scottie pace up Nursery Ravine and across to the aquaduct where we will divert to check for any early Drip Disas, and then carry on to Maclears Beacon. It will take us at least 4 hours to get to this point, and another hour to get to the Cable Station where we hope that they will allow two tired Scotties to take the cable car down. We will leave a car at the end - or ask someone to lift us back to Kirstenbosch. Meet at the top gate - Rycroft Gate - at Kirstenbosch at 7h30. Bring money for the cable car and Wild Cards, lunch and plenty of water.

A snippet about Thomas Maclear.

Up Kasteels to the Cablecar via Valley of the Red Gods

Meet at the Theresa Avenue gate onto the mountain, Camps Bay.

About 4-5 hours.

Bring money for the cable car ticket - and a Wildcard if you want the discount.

Some notes on the old cableway in Kasteelspoort taken from the book The Table Mountain Book by Jose Burman .

This cablecar was built in 1893 to haul supplies up the Table Mountain during the construction of the dams on top. The horizontal line of the cableway was 1600 m, and it rose to a vertical height of 700 m.

Then. And now - 118 years later. Burman says: "On the summit edge of Postern Buttress they set up the cable gear, though the engine was at the foot of the cableway. The cable car was an open skip, on which passengers crouched amidst the equipment. It must have been a hair-raising trip, for in 14 spans in climbed a vertical height of 700 metres, the last span being 450 metres in length."