Having spent a week in Cape Town when I first arrived in Africa in mid-November and immediately falling completely in love with the city and its incredible mountains, delightful vegan scene, endless beaches and coastline and its absolutely wonderful humans, I planned to spend two more weeks exploring the city after our cross-African roadtrip ended and I'd crossed a few more things off my wishlist in eastern South Africa, such as a trip to Lesotho.
I checked into a hostel and spent most of the weekdays working and enjoying wandering the streets of Cape Town in the early evenings. However, when the weekend rolled around, I was amped to get back out onto the many trails of Cape Town. The city is exceptionally lucky in that there are simply loads of hikes literally right in town, what with Table Mountain and Lion's Head both in the heart of everything; in fact Cape Town wraps itself around these two beautiful mountains offering numerous places to explore.
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 had hiked the difficult Kasteelsport trail up from Camps Bay on the ocean side of Table Mountain in November and I was keen to get back up the mountain from the city side. I had already done a few hikes with wonderful colleagues of mine, including the Lion's Head Loop and Oppelskop, so we decided to go out with a final hurrah with a long challenging hike up the Skeleton Gorge track to the summit of Table Mountain. Skeleton Gorge is one of the hardest trails up the mountain, at points climbing ladders and scrambling straight up a waterfall. It was a total blast.
Skeleton Gorge is accessed through Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden but if you want to hike to the summit and nearly 1240 metres of elevation gate, I highly recommend coming early in the morning. This means that you won't be able to go through Kirstenbosch as it doesn't open early enough, but you can park in Newlands Forest and add an extra 4km along the Contour Path to reach the start of Skeleton Gorge, hike all the way up, and then walk across Table Mountain past McLears Beacon, the highest point on the entire mountain, before returning to the base via the cable car.
SKELETON GORGE HIKE UP TABLE MOUNTAIN DETAILS
When: year-round
Where: Cape Town, in Table Mountain National Park
Difficulty: difficult
Length: 11.65km one way, with a 1238m elevation gain, which took 3 hours 20 minutes (Strava recording here)
Directions: the hike begins at the back of Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden so if you're coming through there, follow the signs in the gardens. However, if you want to hike to the summit and nearly 1240 metres of elevation gate, I highly recommend coming early in the morning. This means that you won't be able to go through Kirstenbosch as it doesn't open early enough, but you can park in Newlands Forest and add an extra 4km along the Contour Path to reach the start of Skeleton Gorge, hike all the way up, and then walk across Table Mountain past McLears Beacon, the highest point on the entire mountain, before returning to the base via the cable car.
Bathrooms: yes, at the summit
Public Transit: no
