Great view, Pity about the Graffiti

Have you ever found yourself being visually drawn back to a place? Once you know where Woodstock Cave is, you won’t be able to help yourself.
Every time you see Devil’s Peak, which is difficult to avoid if you work in or near the city, you will find your eyes probing the lower slopes looking for the telltale black slit which is Woodstock Cave.
Not so much a cave as a large and deep overhang, some 50 metres wide by fifteen metres deep and three or four metres high at the entrance.
In winter a waterfall forms a curtain over the centre section of the opening. The panoramic view of Table Bay and the City Bowl from inside the cave is well worth a picture.
The walk is a short series of zigzags along a path which is rough underfoot, so be sure to wear appropriate boots. High heels or flip-flops would be hopelessly out of place.
If you think that’s a throwaway line, think again. I never fail to be amazed by what people wear on the mountain — including flip-flops and high heels.
Such people usually stop you and ask “where does this path go to?” I have to fight the urge to tell them not to end a sentence with a preposition, among other things. They also have no water, no rain gear and no idea. There should be a law to prevent such people having access to the mountain.
The mountain is a bit like the sea. If you don’t give it the utmost respect, it will take you.
To get to the start of the walk, drive exactly five kilometres past the lower cable station along Tafelberg Road, to the end of the tarred section. A further 100 metres on dirt will get you to a metal gate with stone pillars.
The start of the climb is well hidden, just ten paces before the gate. The yellow-brown rocky face hides the beginning of the path.
The route zigzags its way slowly up the slope. After four zigzags, the path eventually reaches a contour path which circles the mountain all the way from Constantia Nek to Kloof Nek.
Cross over this important thoroughfare and start counting the zigzags again. Do not add to the already serious erosion problem by taking short cuts. After the seventh zigzag from the contour path you will be confronted with steep log steps and rock scramble.
About ten metres before reaching this steep section, take a side path cuffing back in the direction from which you have just come.
You should now be more or less level with the cave. A few minutes’ walk will bring you to its mouth.
Retrace your steps to return.
One of those little disappointments in the human race that faces one on an almost daily basis will confront you on arrival at the cave.
As the world gets smaller, with more and more people cramming into less and less space, I become cynical and wonder if AIDS is perhaps not a punishment for our thoughtlessness towards each other.
Mindless fools have seen fit to carry pots of paint up here to leave their names, without any apparent shame, for all to see and despise. What is it that inspires the sick graffiti brigade to deface our natural heritage in this manner?
I would like to think that they are low-class people without cultare or pride, but alas I suspect this may not be so.
Maybe they are just ordinary people who need help from a psychiatrist.

By Mike Lundy
Cape Times, April 24, 1998