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# The Pipe Track and the Kasteelspoort Route #
There are lots of benefits living in a city such as Cape Town, Capetonians are so spoilt for choice when it comes to outdoor activities. My girlfriend and two of our friends decided to take a casual walk along the Pipe Track on Table Mountain last weekend and it turned out to be a little more challenging than we thought :) The Pipe Track was built in 1887 to service the water pipeline running along Table Mountain. Our plan was to spend about 3 hrs walking and then call it a day, little did we know our short walk would lead us to summit Table Mountain.
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The Pipe Track is a relatively easy walk, it begins at the intersection of Tafelberg Road and Kloof Nek. After climbing a few stairs you get onto the contour path that runs past the water filtration plant and onto some amazing views of Camps Bay.
https://image.ibb.co/d6iZY5/map.jpg https://goo.gl/maps/YnX8WxkBQCy
We set out at 7.30 am on a Saturday morning, the sun was already up but the path we were on would remain in shadow until at least mid day. As I mentioned the scenery is amazing and there are tons of birds around so if you are a birder then you will love this track. We stopped at the path called Kasteelspoort where we met a gent who convinced us to find a rock outcrop called Breakfast Rock ( well that's what we were told ) and that it wasn't too far up...it ended up being about 35min away but when we found it it was well worth it.
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https://image.ibb.co/ibw4Y5/IMG_20170304_103408.jpg *"Breakfast Rock"*
Since we were so close to the top of the mountain we decided to carry on. I really wanted to check out where the old cable station used to be so we made our way up.
https://image.ibb.co/eKAWD5/IMG_20170304_115552.jpg *Old Cable Station*
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The reservoirs at the top of the mountain were relatively close to us so we decided to go and visit these too, there is also a Waterworks museum.
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https://image.ibb.co/jhNBD5/IMG_20170304_125320.jpg *Imagine riding down the mountain in this!?*
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azwwnZ6BU3Q *Hely-Hutchinson Reservoir*
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https://image.ibb.co/mPiCLk/IMG_20170304_134958.jpg *The biggest King Protea I have ever seen!*
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https://image.ibb.co/bYa90k/IMG_20170304_125017.jpg The museum was very cool as it showed some of the equipment used to build the reservoirs and gave a good history about the construction. After finishing up at the damn we left on our last stretch towards the cable station where some cold beers awaited us.
https://image.ibb.co/iWxTt5/IMG_20170304_140501.jpg *I think we are lost*
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*This is a Dassie, they are everywhere and believe it or not they are the closest related relatives to Elephants!*
https://image.ibb.co/hbzK0k/IMG_20170304_145709.jpg Overall the hike took us about 7hrs but we took our sweet time :D
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It's well worth the experience if you have the chance!
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https://image.ibb.co/dqMMD5/IMG_20170516_141856.jpg ## *Thanks for reading!* ##