Today we went up Table Mountain via the India Venster route. Venster (pronounced "Fenster") means window, and the route takes its name from a point where there's a view whose outline looks like the Indian subcontinent. Or so I'm told - I never actually saw anything that looked like that, but oh well...
Since Jen let me arrange this portion of the trip I talked with the guide and he worked in some scrambling to our route. Jen was a good sport and went along, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time moving up the mountain without just walking.
If you ever do climb Table Mountain I strongly encourage you to use a guide. There's an "easy" route, which would qualify as trudgery, and then there are a bunch of faintly marked other routes. I lost track of the number of people who were lost and asked our guide for directions.
We also saw two people in front of us go way off the trail and have to circle back and basically start over at one point. If you're still not convinced, consider this:
It says "This is not an easy way down." It means "This is an impossible way down." Our guide regaled us with tales of the misfortunes met by other hikers. Evidently an Englishman ignored this sign (along with others) and managed to fall over a cliff here, landing on a tiny edge. He was able to call for rescue on his cell phone, which seems to be how most stories about lost hikers on Table Mountain end.
There are some nice views, though, and I'm glad we did it.
For dinner we went to Saigon, the first place that actually understands what "spicy" means. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well, and wasn't very good company. If Jen ever gets her blog started I'm sure she'll expand on that.
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