Spend the night on Table Mountain

A 2 day hike on Table Mountain

with accomodation on the

mountain

Last Wednesday evening I had a real treat. I hiked from Silvermine to the bottom of Platteklip Gorge over 2 days with the night spent in the Overseers cottage on top of the mountain.

There are a number of routes you can follow to get to the cottage. But I chose to walk from the dam in Silvermine North, around the Hout Bay side of the Constantiaberg via the lookout point and Blackburn Ravine. This way we enjoyed the floral splendour of Silvermine as well as the fantastic views over Chapmans peak. We then hiked past the manganese mines and over the Vlakkenberg to Constantia Nek. From here, having already been hiking for 5 hours, we had a last one hour climb to the cottage. It was a tough day but well worth it!!

The view over Hout Bay is magnificent

We arrived at the cottage to be welcomed by our back up team. They had arrived earlier with the luggage and food. After a warm shower we settled down with a glass of wine and snacks. This followed by a braai finished off a perfect day. The Overseers cottage is well equipped with comfortable beds so we then spent a comfortable night before heading off again the following morning.

We were up early to see the sunrise

After an early start to catch the sunrise, and a full breakfast, we again shouldered our day packs and set off on day 2. Again there are a number of routes to Platteklip Gorge. I chose to follow the East side of the mountain until we reached Nursery Ravine. We then turned left and followed the Nursery through to the central part of the mountain, where we visited the waterworks museum. From here I took my favourate path through the aquaduct. (if you have never taken this path, do yourself a favour. It follows a small beautiful gorge that feeds the dams.)

The Aquaduct path follows a small gorge

This route leads back to join Smuts track on the Eastern side of the mountain. We carried on along this path to Maclears Beacon and then on to the Table top. We chose to hike down Platteklip rather than cheat and take the cable car. At the bottom we were met by our faithfull back up team bearing magnum ice cream and ice tea……. A perfect 2 days.

https://www.ridgwayramblers.co.za/index.php/hiking-options/spend-the-night-on-table-mountain/

About the Author: Binny

Binny Ridgway was born and bred in the English Lake District, and developed a passion for “the great outdoors” at an early age.Her knowledge of the mountains of the Western Cape and especially that of Table Mountain is legendary, as is her knowledge of the indigenous flora and fauna of the area.

Binny of Ridgway Ramblers offers an amazing hiking experience on Table Mountain! A walk up Table Mountain is a must do if you are a visitor to Cape Town.

Binny, the guide was the BEST! I enjoyed this hike so much. I would definitely do it again an I would recommend it to everyone who loves a good hike!!!!

We had such an enjoyable experience with Binny. From rock climbing/hiking to site seeing and many fascinating history lessons. Binny seems to know it all. She could tell us every type of plant, species of animal/insect/bug etc.

My daughter and I are Canadians visiting beautiful South Africa. Climbing Table Mountain was on our must do list. We both had a great time hiking with Binny.

We had a wonderful morning hiking with Binny. She was really knowledgable and shared lots of interesting information. She was very organised - and brought along water, juice, snacks and hats. We would highly recommend her and we would use her again.