‘Don’t walk alone on Table Mountain’

Published Oct 10, 2014

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Cape Town - The body of a 23-year-old judo expert from Japan was found on Thursday after he apparently fell 30m when he strayed from a Table Mountain hiking trail the night before.

Keisuke Itsubo was hiking Platteklip Gorge alone late on Wednesday, in cold, wet and misty conditions, when he “took a wrong turn” and got lost.

“He ended up on the cliff face on top of Union Ravine - which is definitely not a designated trail,” said SA National Parks (SANParks) regional spokeswoman Merle Collins.

She explained that he was supposed to meet his friends at the lower cable station at 6pm on Wednesday, but when he failed to arrive, they alerted mountain rescue. A search was launched by SANParks rangers and Metro EMS who were forced to call off the search as it became dark and weather conditions worsened.

“The conditions were terrible on Thursday. They couldn’t see anything, they couldn’t find anything,” said Collins.

She said the search was resumed at daybreak on Thursday and Itsubo’s body was found via satellite navigation on his cellphone - allowing a SkyMed helicopter to fly directly to where it was located. His body was airlifted to Tafelberg Road at about 9am on Thursday.

“We do not advise anybody to walk alone, especially if the weather was like it was (on Wednesday),” Collins said.

“When the mist comes over you can’t see a thing. It is not advisable at all to walk alone - even in perfect conditions.”

Police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana confirmed that the body of a man believed to be a Japanese national was found by SkyMed on the mountain. He said police had no information as to where the man resided, but an inquest docket had been opened.

Itsubo was visiting Cape Town during his two week’s leave from the Botswana Judo Federation, where he had been volunteering since June last year.

President of the Botswana Judo Federation Estony Hattingh said Itsubo was a “a tremendous inspiration” to the children he taught.

“And he brought the level of our judo up like you can’t believe,” she said.

She said not only did he have an “incredible sense of humour”, but he was “the most humble person” she had ever met.

 

She said he came highly recommended from Japan Overseas Co-operation Volunteers and had studied Physical Education at Tokai University - “one of the best universities in Japan”.

 

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Cape Argus

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