A Table Mountain guide and his guests got to experience one of nature’s rarest and most fascinating phenomena.
Western Cape, South Africa (16 February 2026) – Cape Town mountain guide Brendon Wainwright captured it on camera!
A Wednesday morning hike on Lion’s Head turned even more spectacular for Brendon and his guests when they got to experience one of the coolest natural phenomena on their trek up the mountain.
Check it out:
‘Got to see & experience an incredible Brocken spectre with guests this morning on Lion’s Head mountain. It lasted less than 30 seconds and our timing and positioning was spot on! Wow,’ shared Wainwright via his page, Table Mountain Experience.
A Brocken spectre happens in mountains or high places when the sun is low behind you and there’s mist or cloud in front of you. Your shadow gets projected onto the fog, but it looks huge, distorted, and sometimes surrounded by glowing rainbow rings. Those rainbow rings are called a ‘glory’, created by light diffracting and reflecting inside water droplets
It can feel almost supernatural if you don’t know what you’re seeing!
Because the shadow falls onto uneven moving mist, it can appear gigantic and even move in strange ways, which is why older folklore described it as a mountain spirit.
No, it’s not a mountain spirit, a trick, or AI. It’s the perfect example of being in the right place, at the right time!
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