Mensa Mons, A Place to Call Home, and Mental Illness

“Table Mountain, Failing to Kill Myself and Naming Suicide Point”

Suicide Point: Up Platteklip Gorge and take a left – feel like jumping?

A hop skip and a jump from Kimberley Road (a place to call home)

The commonality between the original name of Table Mountain in Mensa Mons and the
constellation of Mensa – the Table – in the southern night skies is remarkable. The suburb of
Observatory in Cape Town was the start of many an eventful hike on the Table (so to speak).

History is all around you in the Cape. Also, in Observatory, is found the Psychiatric Hospital
Valkenberg – which stole a year of my youth…but also gave me a foothold on Table Mountain, and
in light of which Suicide Point was named.

Up to the Kings Blockhouse and along the Contour Path to Kirstenbosch – a Sunday stroll.

11 hours on the Table – for the dedicated hiker.

Not that I was in need of any extra medical attention.

Conversational hypnosis?
Conversational poetry.