Cape Town has been described as the most beautiful city in the World.  The natural setting is indeed magnificently unique.  Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean dominate.  The original town lies in the City Bowl created by Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak to the east and south.     To the west, the Lion’s Head and Signal Hill complete the semi-ring. It is truly an urban equivalent of the glories found farther to the east atop the wilds of the Drakensberg.

Many times, to properly appreciate a mountain, you need to climb another to gain a better appreciation.  So, it can be with Table Mountain. My journey started here.  Lion’s Head gets it name because the shape resembles a reclining male lion looking towards Table Mountain. Signal Hill is also known as the Lions Rump.  Again, better appreciated away from the mountain.     

LION’S HEAD

beginning

At 669 meters high, Lion’s Head offers an interesting warm up before taking on the Table. The trail gains around 400 meters winding upward around the peak starting up from a car park along Signal Hill Road just up from the Kloof Nek intersection – a guard is there to watch over your car.

Beginning as a fire road, the way climbs slowly at first, giving grand views towards Table Mountain and the Atlantic Seaboard by Camps Bay. Next, Clifton comes into view and then Sea Point/Green Point as the trail winds to the northern slopes. Spiraling up the peak, the trail reaches the eastern side.     Here at the first of two short ladders, two options present.  The first is a bit longer but safer as it continues to circle to gain the southern summit ridge.     

adventure beckons

Adventure beckons with the second option.  Wasting no time, the path goes straight up the east slope, climbing over a couple short cliffs with the aid of a steel chain that you ascend hand-over-hand. Make sure your hands are not sweating too badly when you use the chain!  Both tracks eventually reunite above. With a little more scrambling, gain the small summit plain. Savor the views! Figure on one to two hours to climb the Head.  Climbing the Lion’s Head is best in the early morning and never in inclement weather.

KRAMATS

An interesting side trip from the top of the Lion’s Head is to explore the kramats lying below on the base of the northern slopes.  Islam on the Cape dates to the 17th Century. After Dutch incursions into Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia, better political control was gained with the banishment of local leaders by the Dutch to the Cape Station. These sultans were joined by slaves from these areas, and from other Islamic regions.

Kramats are graves of Islamic holy men who lived and died around Cape Town.  There are more than twenty recognized kramats around Cape Town forming a rough circle around the city.  Local Muslims spend time before undertaking their personal hajj to Mecca making a local pilgrimage to the local kramats.

The most famous kramat is of Sheikh Yusuf at Faure east of Cape Town near the shores of False Bay.   He was responsible for the formation of the first Islamic community in south Africa. Probably the most obvious kramat to the uninitiated tourist is that of Sheikh Mohamed Hassen Ghaibie Shah. The tomb lies just off the Signal Hill Road at the base of the northern slopes of Lion’s Head. Shah was a follower of Sheikh Yusuf and an Islamic teacher.  Other known graves are found just outside his kramat.

TABLE TOP

With a better appreciation of the Table from the distance, time to discover the mountain more intimately.   Table Mountain is comprised of several different sections. There is a Western Table, a Back Table, an Eastern Table and the Central Table.  Most tourists coming up the cable car limit their time to the small Western Table, twenty meters wide (north-to-south) by 600-700 meters long (east-to-west). The Western Table offers grand views and easy trails introducing the unique upland restio fynbos terrain. Venture beyond the crowds to the Central Table for much more.

EASIEST WAY

Most visitors to top of Table Mountain use the cable car. Some 880,000 people a year ride up high per the tram literature. The cost is R200 one way and R380 round trip. The views are World-class from the top of the mountain.

There is a requisite curio shop with a place to get quick meals on top. Short interpretive trails atop the Western Table wander around the summit area. While the cable car is the easiest means to reach the top, it certainly is not the only road up.

The Central Table is separated from the Western Table by the upper end of Platteklip Gorge. From the Western Table, a path drops about thirty meters to the top of the gorge. It then ascends to the top of the Central Table. The Central Table is slightly under 2 kilometers long by about a half kilometer wide. A mixture of marsh and upland restio fynbos covers the landscape.

MACLEAR’S BEACON

Walking an hour east from the Cable station, is the eastern edge of the Central Table. Here is the highest point on Table Mountain – Maclear’s Beacon, 1087 meters high – 19 meters higher than the Western Table.  The view to the east, where most Capetonians live, is extensive. Mountain ranges to the east separate the Cape flats and wine regions of Paarl-Stellenbosch from the vast deserts of the Karoo beyond.

The main trail to Maclear’s Beacon is also part of the Hoerikwaggo Hiking Trail. This trail leads from the V/A Waterfront at the seaside of the City Bowl to the end of the Cape of Good Hope.

CHEAPER WAY

For those not interested in paying for the cable car, several paths wind their way up Table Mountain from various spots around the massif.  The most popular route up from the City Bowl is Platteklip Gorge trail, a part of the Hoerikwaggo Trail system.  The trail takes about 2.5 hours up the Gorge to the summit where the Gorge threatens to separate the Western Table from the larger Central Table.

THE HOLY SIDE

Along the Atlantic side, rising above the swank suburb of Camps Bay, stretching for several kilometers is a ridge known as the Twelve Apostles.  The Twelve Apostles represent a southward extension of Table Mountain comprised of several buttresses punctuated by steep ravines – several of sporting steep trails.  

Atop the crest of the Apostles from the point where the Table Mountain plateau trail leads from the Western Table to the Central Table at the intersection with the top of the Platteklip Gorge Track, another path leads south. The Twelve Apostle Track moves off the Table into Echo Valley, around Blinkwater Peak. From here, the path moves through the Valley of Isolation and the Valley of the Red Gods on the way to the Apostles’ southern end at Llandudno/Hout Bay.  

Easiest trails to the top of the Apostles include the Kasteelpoort, Woody Ravine and Corridor Ravine trails, all of which ascend from the Pipe Track trail.

PIPE TRACK

The Pipe Track runs at about the 300-meter level on the Atlantic Seaboard side of the Twelve Apostles.  It follows the water pipeline coming off the reservoirs on the Back Table of Table Mountain.  Starting from Kloof Nek – the pass between the City Bowl and Camps Bay – the trail follows the waterpipes south.  The water reservoirs date to the end of the 19th Century.  Originally, water came through Apostles in the Woodward Tunnel, located in Slangolie ravine. A newer tunnel, the Apostles Tunnel, has supplanted that one using the Woody Ravine.   Walking south, pass underneath the filtration plant where the water passes to the Molteno Reservoir in the Oranjezicht district of the City Bowl.  From the Pipe Track, several options exist to climb further up into the Twelve.

Another big advantage of the Pipe Track in the morning is shade!

KASTEELPOORT TRACK

City fathers in the late 19th Century used the Kasteelpoort track as the ravine used to bring water from water sources atop Table Mountain to the City Bowl.  Work took place from 1887 to 1891 establishing the pipeline. Cornish miners from the gold and diamond mines built the works.  Then, reservoirs were added to enabling the City to get through the dry summers.  The remains of supports for the cableway used to bring materials for the dam up from Camps Bay below can still be seen.  A small village was established atop the ravine for workers with a small railway running from the cableway to where the dams were being constructed. One of the huts next to the Hely-Hutchinson Reservoir still functions as a museum devoted to the period.

TRACK ATOP ALL

On top of the Twelve or from the Cable Station, the Suikerboissie Track travels through some of the best parts of Table Mountain National Park.  Leading south from the Cable Station over Blinkwater Peak, the track traverses the spine of the Twelve Apostle chain. It ends, after some exposed and tricky sections on the southern end, at the Suikerbossie Restaurant in Llandudno.

Like any Table Mountain trail, when the tablecloth is on the mountain, you will be wanting to look elsewhere to hike, but when the table is bare, the trail takes you through prime erica fynbos vegetation. Eroded sculptures of sandstone rise all around adding to the surrealistic scene.

Different seasons mean different colors and flowers to brighten the scene. You can elect to do the entire Suikerbossie or just parts. A possibility is to loop up from the Pipe Track to the west via the Corridor Ravine or Woody Ravines and back down the Kasteelpoort Track (or vice versa). You are in saintly territory up here with the Twelve Apostles as your compatriots.

KING OF THE APOSTLES

Standing at 857 meters, the Groot Kop is the highest Apostle.  To reach the top, you have a way to walk in whichever direction tackling the peak from. From the Table Mountain cable station, the Camps Bay sea shore, the exposed end-section of the Suikerbossie track leading up from Llandudno or one of the long options leading up the east side of Table Mountain (i.e., Skeleton Gorge from the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Area) all involve long traverses across the water reservoirs of the Back Table.  

The Suikerbossie Track traverses around the east slopes of Groot Kop. A small boot-path leads off and up marked by a simple cairn.   After walking about 300-400 meters, gain the required seventy or so vertical meters with a little scrambling required at times.  

On top, vast views greet efforts made.  It is fascinating to see the back side of Table Mountain and the water reservoirs.   You can see the cliffs of the Orange Face drop off the Back Table.  Turning to the south and southeast, you look over Constantiaberg to farther peaks near Muizenberg and Simon’s Town.  Hout Bay is far below.  Judas Peak is just to the south, the last of the Twelve.   To the west, cliffs drop 857 meters to the Atlantic just south of Camps Bay.  

THE DOCTOR AND THE TABLECLOTH

You will probably be alone up here, so be prepared for possible weather changes.  Wind/fog from the southeast – the Cape Doctor – is a condition for immediate retreat.

The Cape Doctor is a local name for strong, dry south-easterly winds blowing regularly across Cape Town, especially during the summer.  These winds can be especially irritating along the Atlantic Seaboard, such as in Camps Bay.  The Cape Doctor is responsible for the sheet of clouds forming atop Table Mountain known as ‘the tablecloth’.  The ‘tablecloth’ can turn a hike atop Table Mountain into a dangerous affair due to lack of visibility, wind, and wet, slippery conditions.  If the ‘tablecloth’ is out, best look elsewhere to spend your day