Africa Ledge

Approach

There are basically two ways to approach The Ledge.

- Take the cable car up and then Rappel down to the Ledge from various approved (with SANPARKS) bolted abseil points

- Walk Up.

The walk is great. It gives you a good warm-up, lets you enjoy the full mountain experience and gets you fit. The cablecar is quick and gets you to the top fresh. You can arrive on The Ledge with not even a bead of sweat on your brow. A return ticket is pricey once-off, for regular use a Green Card  (issued by the Parks Board not US emigrations), gets you a substantial reduction on this price.
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The path starts just before the bus parking at the lower cableway station. (100m before you get to the station when approaching it on Tafelberg Road). It takes a fairly direct line up to the contour path (This traverses aimost around the whole mountain at this level.) Cross the Contour Path and immediately start heading diagonally right.

As you head diagonally right a series of rock steps lead up to a flat platform on the top of the buttress, visible from below. The path now takes you up a gully. The Venster (rock win­dow) can be seen on the left a short way up the gully. At the top of the gully the path sud­denly flattens out for a short section allowing a great view of the second half of the route. The grassy bowl above is the top of India Ravine. The path traverses all the way along this to the top left-hand end where one follows a series of rock steps to finally top out via a gully to a spectacular view of Africa Ledge. (There are many options one can take on the rock scrambles. Take care.) At this point the cairned path moves slightly right, then swings left below the final rock band under Africa Ledge. You are now at the junction of Africa and Fountain Ledges (directly below Arrow Final).

Walk c35m left (just before the final switchback where the path goes right to the crest of the ridge and around the corner) to the convenient cave/overhang. This is the base of Odshouters Outing 1st pitch for reference. There is water availability in the Lillie Pond c15m left of the cave.

Descend either by walking around via the India Venter Path or by abseiling.

Each sector has unique Abseil Points, read the Sector Descent Beta for better info.

Walking:

From the top cableway station take any of the many paths heading east away from the sta­ tion towards Platteklip Gorge (signs). The Front Table is separated from the rest of the mountain by a small valley. Platteklip Gorge is on the left and Fountain Ravine on the right. From the bottom of the valley go sharp right heading for Fountain Ravine. Follow a slightly bushy path for a while past a small concrete pump house. Continue along the path, keep­ ing right, against the side of the valley passing a metal sign 'This is not an easy way down'. Do not drop down into Fountain Ravinell

The path is narrow as it traverses below ever steepening rock walls. Finally you will pass a deep chimney with a pipe running down it and pop around the corner onto Upper Fountain Ledge at its far right-hand end. Continue along beneath the Staircase Area and descend some small rock steps to a lower level. This carries on, passing the Cobblestone's Gendarme and the Magnetic Wall Area eventually turning another corner to reach the start of Africa Ledge. (20 - 30 min)

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