A WALK OVER KLOOFNEK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

A WALK OVER KLOOFNEK

By GWENDOLYN TANCRED. 14 Ladies' Mile, Remuera, Auckland..

A S there was a slight south-easter blowing and the day rather cooler than we had lately been experiencing, 1 took advantage and set oft, clau m shorts and shirt, for a walk over Kloornek. After the first slight pull to the tram terminus, where one can eaten the bus that carries passengers to the first cable station, the going vras down hill. , * .j Taking one .of the many little winding tracks that run down this valley I soon caught the incomparable sweet spicey scent of the hot sun on drying pin© needles. It was a lot cooler then, as the trees grew thickly on every side, in many places interlacing overhead. One might have been hundreds, of nnles from civilisation, as the only sounds to bo heard were the dull booming of the breakers, the soft cooing of hundreds or doves, and the sharper clack-clack or the locusts. Suddenly the track widened and one most unexpectedly came upon the Round House, which is now a tea-room, but formerly was the shooting-box or Lord Charles Somerset, Governor or South Africa in IS2O. It is the quaintest place built in a circular form and gleaming white against the greens of its surroundings. Behind it Lions' Head looms up and from the smooth turf that runs in terraces toward tho sea, one can obtain a glorious view of the Twelve Apostles, with the various little seaside resorts nestling at their feet. The day was extremely clear, but the cloth was very heavy on Table Mountain. That is a sight that, has to be seen to be fully appreciate!. Againsi the vivid blue of the sky and th» beautiful filmy mauve of the mountain this cloud lies soft and thick and fleecf in a perfect line along the mountain. I continued on my way and loiteriu through the cool green. of the ojK groves, always winding down, dowJSome of the faint subsidiary patff| looked very inviting, but rattier afrfld of loosing my direction I kefij to 1« 0 one I had first chosen. The wild ers were almost over, but here there I saw the strange bloom of the protea, nerifolia, and the glor® ll3 burst of colour of the orange nod<u n 2 head, or scliaam bloom. . The climb hack-would have been too exhausting, for although the s un was sinking, the air was 110 cooler. 1 caught a bus at S^apoint that tooK me round the base of Lions' Head ana back to Capetown.