I flew into Cape Town in early November, the starting point of one big final adventure for 2022, one that would see me traversing much of the southern part of the continent for the remainder of the year, discovering the wildest and rawest parts of the beautiful countries down here. This wild nine-country adventure began with a week based in Cape Town to acclimatise, both to the summer weather (escaping the chilly wet winter of Salzburg) and also to the lifestyle, one marred by a constant need to be self-aware and in varying stages of survival mode. Cape Town was a good way of getting our feet wet.
I ended up spending three weeks total in wonderful Cape Town, flying back in mid-December after our roadtrip to spend a bit more time exploring what has quickly become one of my favourite cities in the world. Initial plans had me staying in Johannesburg, South Africa's other big city in the east, but fear and horrible crime rates and a terrible reputation led me to booking a flight back to the haven that is Cape Town. You can read my detailed blog post here where I attempt to summarise everything I did in Cape Town.
Of course, the defining feature of Cape Town is Table Mountain, straddling the city, protecting the downtown core from the ocean winds and providing an aesthetically beautiful and rugged backdrop to the city’s coastline. Seemingly flat-topped, resembling in every way a table, a whole host of trails work their way up its sides. At the peak, on the westernmost side, a cable car provides hikers with a safe return down and, for the bulk of Table Mountain’s visitors, to do a return trip sans effort but with all of the views.
We woke up at 4:30am in the morning to hike up the Kasteelsport trail, a challenging trek known as one of the trickiest on the mountain, with a steep 1000m elevation gain. Sometimes I have those moments where my mind can’t fathom what my eyes are taking in. What a dream to stand here, in person, and see this view for myself. Worth every cold, tired step up the mountain.
KASTEELSPORT HIKE UP TABLE MOUNTAIN DETAILS
When: year-round
Where: Cape Town, in Table Mountain National Park
Difficulty: difficult
Length: 7.6km one way, with a 1000m elevation gain, which took just over 2 hours (we took the cable car back down)
Directions: park at the base of Table Mountain on the Camps Bay side and follow the signs for Kasteelsport. The Pipe Track begins here too, but that's a trail that circumnavigates the base of Table Mountain and does not summit it, so be sure to stay on the right trail! Kasteelsport heads straight up towards Table Mountain, don't turn right. After about 30 minutes, you begin to climb and the rest of the hike is essentially a vertical climb up the step-like rocks to the summit and then across.
Bathrooms: yes, at the summit
Public Transit: no, but we took an Uber from the base of the cable car back to our parked car near Camps Bay
