Cape Town: Hiking Table Mountain

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Hiking is one of my favorite things to do, and Cape Town has one of the best hiking spots in the world. Table Mountain overlooks the ocean and the city below and is a great spot for sunsets. The first day we were in Cape Town we dropped our bags at our AirBnB, grabbed an Uber, and immediately headed for Table Mountain. Our goal was to hike up, catch the sunrise, and take the cable car back down.

Andreas had been to Cape Town before and had managed to hike up Table Mountain early one morning in about 45 minutes. He promised a slightly difficult hike, but no scrambling. The Reine hike from Norway was still fresh in my mind!

We started our hike around 5pm and the light was gorgeous. Everything was lit up in a golden glow and the spring flowers were blooming. The view was breathtaking at every stop, and the climbing was fairly easy. Because of the time of day there were not very many people on the trails.

We pushed our pace a bit in the beginning and then reached a point where the trail divided. While neither of us knew the second trail, it looked beautiful, so we thought we’d give it a shot. A man coming down told us that further up ahead “it gets interesting.” He was definitely right!

A few minutes later we came upon our first challenge – rock climbing. We were no longer just hiking. The park had placed chains and ladders in the rocks so you could climb vertically up the face of the cliffs. This is highly recommendable if you want an adventure, have time, and are prepared, but not otherwise!

As we crested the top, we quickly realized we were nowhere near the summit. We could not find a trail that would lead us to the top. Steep, rocky cliffs rose in our way. We were so close we could hear the tourists at the top talking! The sheer cliffs turned out to be more of a challenge than we had thought. At that moment, the tram siren for the last ride went off. It was only 6pm!

Table Mountain Cable Car

Realizing we might never make it to the top and starting to lose light, we began the treacherous scramble back down. We decided to take another trail that might get us down quicker. Needless to say, we decided we would not take the same route down again! Once we made it safely down an hour later, we took an Uber back to our AirBnB, and rewarded ourselves with a pint of chocolate ice cream! We decided to try another route on Sunday.

Andreas and I are avid hikers and Table Mountain really is not that great of a challenge if you take other trails. We were disappointed that we didn’t make it to the top that evening but realize that if we had started earlier it would have been entirely possible. The last tram down also went earlier than was advertised!

We later found out that there was indeed a way up the 30 foot cliffs that stopped us, but it was not clearly marked. Be sure to go with plenty of time to search out the hidden pathway if you want to try this adventurous route!

Also important: do not go to Table Mountain on a Sunday, especially when the weather is nice! The wait time to go up in the tram was three hours in the early morning. There were also scores of tourists and hikers on the trails. If you have the flexibility, go on a weekday, hike up, and if you feel like you want more – go ahead and hike down, too!