Elephant's Eye Cave

Saturday was supposed to be a day of resting. Minna has cought an other flu and stayed in bed most of the day. After a good lay in and a bit of work (internet was working), I decided that kids and me need to get out.

We drove to Silvermine which is part of the Table Mountain National Park right above Tokai. My idea was to walk very slowly around the lake on the broadwalk, but Matias was keen to see the Elephant's Eye Cave, so we headed out. After a cold night the day had turned quite hot: over 25 degrees. The walk was not too hard but the map at the car park did not indicate the steep climb at the end. The cave is quite high up the Constantiaberg. The entrance is huge but it does not continue very deep into the rock at all. Nearby, there is a lookout hut poised above the clif. The whole of Tokai and Cape Flats are underneeth you up there.

On the way back we rested on some flat rocks. Matias found a curious big insect from the cracks. When I lifted it up on the rocks, it did not run away but huntched down and bent its shield-like back towards any movement. Kids were on the other side and when we moved the little bug swayed like a sailing boat tacking against the wind. At home we found that it was a Giant Table Mountain Cockroach, Aptera fusca . The males have wings but the females do not.

There was two thing that made this two hour walk a bit taxing: Since I had not prepared for a long walk, we had no water with us. Secondly, India did not feel like walking at all. She might have walked a total of 10 meters. She is getting heavy, so I still feel it in my back after I carrying her on my shoulders all that time.