Drakensberg Cable Car

Interesting report on power outage and the cable way:

Nearly 40 people were trapped in a cable car in high winds for two hours and hundreds more were stranded until after midnight on the top of Table Mountain earlier this month. Simon Grindrod, a Cape Town city councillor, said that the incident could have been avoided if Eskom had just given 10 minutes' warning.

"The knock-on effect on Cape Town is immeasurable," he said. "A headline today is lost business tomorrow."

www.smh.com.au/news/world/south-africa-declares-electricity-emergency/2008/01/26/1201157746816.html

Getting stuck in the Berg in winter without the right kit will be a different matter....

mnt_tiska wrote: Nearly 40 people were trapped in a cable car in high winds for two hours and hundreds more were stranded until after midnight on the top of Table Mountain earlier this month.

.....

Getting stuck in the Berg in winter without the right kit will be a different matter....

Exactly! The original idea of North Saddle was such a shocker of an idea - you can tell they don't know anything about the area. What would a group stranded on top of North Saddle in bad conditions do? There isn't even water on that summit.

Its also much higher than the Cape Town one, the weather is so different up there to down in the Small Berg - people would go up in tekkies, shorts and a t-shirt. What further worries me is that they would probably also build a cafe style setup at the top - can't have tourists carrying shovels, and they would want to make more money out of selling "valuable rubbish" like coffee mugs. At least they could run a generator and have some emergency supplies up there for when a party gets stuck for 3 days during a heavy snowfall.

Also people will want to do the Table Mountain tradition of catching a ride up and walking back down. All good and well if they can navigate to the chain ladders (a path will quickly develop anyway), but what happens when they want to hike back to Mnweni from here, or see that Ifidi Pass is right there - the pass looks so innocent and inviting from the top! - Or even worse, what when they try Inner Tower Gully?

Great stuff, maybe add your name, and say on behalf of the drakensberg hiking community?

"medicinal plant harvesting" The first thing that springs to mind is that it sounds like he wants to protect the local narcotic which doesn't help the argument.

Guys, while I agree with the minor mods suggested, we're not all going to agree on each line in this thing or the precise choice of words. We should rule out factually incorrect stuff which can catch us out, if it still contains such and then go with it. The important thing is to move the statement along to the media now....

Agreed.

My cousin works at The Times (Sunday Times etc) and she said she would have a look at this for us.
Intrepid - I will PM you her details so you can get hold of her.