Cape Town - On Wednesday two groups of foreign tourists were rescued in the mountains high above Camps Bay.
The first was an Australian who was injured while hiking up Blinkwater Ravine, and the second was a Norwegian family who were trapped high on Blind Gully Trail above Camps Bay.
Norwegian tourist Stefan Jansson said: “It was an awful situation. I hiked up Table Mountain once before a couple of years ago and at that time I had a guide who took me from where the Table Mountain cable car started to the Camps Bay side until we reached a crack and then we went up the crack to Table Mountain. It was an easy hike and our plan was to do the same thing on Wednesday.”
However, the family – including two young children – encountered trouble after they lost their way while ascending the Diagonal Route on their way to Table Mountain.
They continued to follow a faint trail after they missed a turn off, and a call for help was made to Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR) after they felt it was unsafe to proceed or retreat.
Jansson said: “It became steeper and steeper and at some point I realised this could not be the same track I went the last time … and that we could not go back. We were completely stuck … My family was in shock, especially my fiancée. She could not even talk, we were at the top and we had run out of water and food,” Jansson said.
WSAR spokesperson David Nel said their teams, together with the Western Cape Department of Health EMS/AMS rescue helicopter, were dispatched to assist and a decision was taken to hoist the stranded family into the helicopter then fly them down to safety.
This experience has not deterred Jansson, who said he would take on Table Mountain again, but with a better map and guidance.
When the call was received to assist the Norwegian family, WSAR and the EMS/AMS rescue helicopter was already in the area attending to an Australian hiker, believed to be in his fifties, who slipped and fell while hiking up Blinkwater Ravine above Camps Bay.
WSAR teams were activated and, with the assistance of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, they swiftly made their way to the patient who was assessed then flown down to safety.
Jansson was impressed with the efficient and technical rescue response carried out: “It was a great reflection of not just Cape Town, but South Africa.”
