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Table Mountain hikes -
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I've walked the mountains a lot around the Peninsula, but this was my first two-day, overnight trail here (overnighting on the mountain isn't allowed for casual hikers).
My sister-in-law proposed a ladies-only hike on the Silvermine-Orangekloof-Table Mountain trail and before long she had recruited a 'team' of 12 friends and the expedition was planned and diarised.
As it turned out, she was the 1001st person to book the hike since it opened, so there was some fanfare and photography at the start!
This is one of the guided, portered Table Mountain hikes so we carried only our daypacks and all the rest of our stuff ( including a case of wine and some gourmet braai stuff!) was ferried to the overnight camp for us. Our 2 guides, Grabeth and Bongani, were awesome - knowledgeable, personable and a pleasure to walk with.
17.5 km on the first day?
It didn't seem possible to walk 17.5km between Silvermine and Constantia Nek. As it happened we cut 2km off the route quite by mistake - we drove up to the dam instead of meeting the guides at the gate!
By the end of the day we had tender feet and were glad we had inadvertently 'cheated' on the mileage!
The route crosses behind the Constantiaberg Peak to the Hout Bay Lookout and then follows the contour path above Hout Bay (nice and shady). Then you swing back up and over the mountain to the Vlakkenberg before picking your way down through Silvermist Estate.
The Tented Camp - above and beyond expectation
Hats off to Table Mountain National Park and their designers for the work they put into this camp!
Nothing like a regular hiking hut, it still has a wonderfully rustic feeling because of the natural materials used. We all agreed that the intricate details made it amazing, from the custom designed lampshades (modelled on spiders' nests!) to the indoor-yet-outdoor-yet-private hot showers and solar-powered electricity.
Table Mountain hikes -- Highlights of Day Two
The second day's walk is much shorter but involves some steep climbs out of Orangekloof valley via Disa Gorge and onto the Back Table of Table Mountain.
It's hard to pinpoint a highlight - the whole experience was a high for me. I think being able to walk for the best part of two days within reach of a city and see only a handful of other people was wonderful, as was the spotting of a Black Eagle - an exciting item on the Table Mountain fauna list.
The pristine Afro-Montane forest in Orangekloof and the wealth of historic information provided by our guide was another.
I also loved rediscovering the 'mountains on top of the mountain' - the peaks and valleys secreted away on the summit of this seemingly flat-topped mountain. Amazing.
After 2 days spent immersed in nature, the descent via the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway seemed way too high-tech and something of an anti-climax. Despite the smooth and uneventful passage from the summit to Tafelberg Road (it takes fractionally less than 4 minutes by my watch) coming back down to 'earth' was a rude shock!
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