It’s a crisp, fresh morning as the Makatini from Cape Town alights from his car, dons his backpack, and with a swagger, steps out onto the well-worn path. Still in shadow, the Table Mountain towers above him on the left, while to his right the turquoise waters of the Atlantic Ocean lap upon the beaches of Camps Bay. The scene stretches as far as the eye can see.
This route across almost level terrain feels easy as the stony track runs parallel to the pipeline that was laid in the late nineteenth century. It was built to take water from Disa Gorge, which lies below the series of peaks known as the Twelve Apostles, to the Molteno Reservoir, in order to help quench the thirst of the ever-growing population during the Cape Town boom.
As the Makatini walks, his mind wanders back to his time in Scotland. It comes to rest on a fond memory of himself and his mate Mike Christianson while they are exploring the ruins of Dunnottar Castle in Aberdeenshire. He recalls how the North Sea crashed against the shoreline below them, and how the evergreen grass and rocks absorbed the spray.
Suddenly he’s brought back to the present as a trail runner bounds effortlessly past him with a greeting of ‘Good Morning!’ Just then he realises he’s covered the mere three kilometres to the Kastelspoort turnoff in good time and decides to stop and wet his lips with a Taylor-Made branded bottle of water.
Author: Rory Taylor
Edited: Marie-Gaye Barton