(Half of) Devil’s Peak

This past weekend I wanted to do a little hiking by myself. I decided to tackle Cape Town’s third famous peak (for those following along at home, I’ve hiked Table Mountain and Lion’s Head already), Devil’s Peak to complete the trifecta. I looked up the best way to get to the top: Google gave me a route that begins at Rhodes Memorial, which is located just above UCT on the lower part of Devil’s Peak. Once I got myself up there, I climbed up the mountain along a path that took me to a crossroads. I guess I looked a bit confused because a man asked me if I was looking for the Blockhouse. I’m not sure why, but I said yes. He pointed me down another trail, which I followed for about 20 minutes until I reached King’s Blockhouse, which I learned was a military base built by the Dutch to protect Cape Town from invasions. There were a few old cannons up there, too. I found a ton of running/biking trails around there so I decided to poke around those. I eventually made it to the Contour Path, which, from what I could see, wrapped around a good portion of the middle of Devil’s Peak. I took this path all the way to the Newland’s Ravine trailhead, which leads to the top of the mountain. It was already 2 o’clock so I decided to head home and leave the rest of Devil’s Peak for another day.