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I hadn't heard a lot about night hiking before I moved to Cape Town, but moonlit hiking up any of Cape Town's three major peaks is a fairly popular activity around these parts, so I decided to get on board with the idea. I'd been hearing about it from my friend Nadine since I arrived, and finally got the opportunity to go when my brother was visiting in October. 

Night hiking on this particular trail is really popular on the night of the full moon, so we had plenty of company on the trail up. We left around 6pm to make it to the top around 7pm just in time for the sun to dip into the ocean. Everyone at the top was in good spirits and there were plenty of people picnicking, listening to music or just sitting watching the sunset. I have to say that there is nothing like the feeling of sitting on a mountain cliff's edge with your feet dangling in the air, watching a fireball sink into an endless body of water. It was incredible. It quickly became one of my favorite memories from my time with Dan here.  

On our way up 

Fun times with my Bro

And it just kept getting prettier long after the actual sun had disappeared. 

While we waited for the moon to rise just a little over 30 minutes after the sun dropped beneath the horizon, the sunset on the west side of the peak grew pinker and pinker until it was a deep fiery fuchsia. Searingly gorgeous. 

View of downtown Cape Town on the hike down. 

We didn't wait for the moon to fully rise, because it was unfortunately stuck behind some clouds, so we decided to get a head start down, before the crowds. The trail is pretty intense with two ladders, and two climbing sections which needless to say was a bit tricky at night, but the challenge just added to the fun. We honestly had such a good time. It's so much quieter when you hike at night, and the whole thing seemed like an entirely different mountain than the one I had climbed a few months before. While I'm sure I'm going to treasure the memories made with my brother for a long time, I also can't wait to do it again. Way to be Cape Town.