Lightning over the weekend started a few fires in Table Mountain National Park. Some of them are still ongoing, sweeping across the top of the mountain from our side down towards the Back Table area above Camps Bay and Hout Bay.
And last night, there was even some local cliff face action: ironically pretty much where I took this photo just a year ago. This was a quick cellphone pic from a car park in Claremont.
But that was nothing compared to what was going on just out of our view, on top:
And our brave firefighting crews are out there fighting the fires. Although that is exactly what they signed up for, I guess. Still, rather them than me.
There are plenty of idiots out there with them though. Despite the fact that there is clearly a fire (see social media posts, news reports passim., not to mention actually just looking at the mountain), the hikers are out there putting themselves in danger and diverting resources away from fighting the fires.
Where else in the world except South Africa would you see the paragraph at the bottom of this post?
Table Mountain National Park Management has closed the Platteklip Gorge trail effective immediately, as the fire is actively burning in the vicinity of Maclear’s Beacon. As visibility is poor in the area due to low cloud coverage, there is a great risk to users unexpectedly walking into the fire line.
Further closures include:
All hiking trails between Newlands and Constantia Nek
The priority remains the safety of residents, hikers, and firefighting personnel, therefore we encourage users to refrain from accessing these areas. SANParks is appealing to the public to please respect the trail closures in order not to endanger anyone or hamper firefighting efforts.
All hiking trails between Newlands and Constantia NekWhat sort of person, having just been told that the trail is closed because they face “a great risk of unexpectedly walking into the fire line”, then needs to be reminded that that means they shouldn’t walk along the closed trail?
We all know what sort of person. There are plenty of them around.
I just find it sad that these potential Darwin Award nominees can’t just be allowed to get on with being Darwin Award nominees.
Second image Brandon Louw via VWS Facebook page