We often prefer to get off the beaten track, and seek out more unusual hikes and viewpoints, but I’d been wanting to visit Cape Town for years and when the opportunity arose, I knew I had to do the two classic hikes Cape Town is known for; Lions Head and Table Mountain. Here’s our experience, including is it safe?, the question a lot of people jump to when it comes to Cape Town.
The phrase you’ll hear a lot; 'weather in Cape Town is unpredictable', don’t underestimate this, you’ll hear it a lot because it is most certainly true. Therefore, if you can give yourself a few different days as options for hiking, be flexible, but really you just need luck on your side.
How we felt about Cape Town safety, and the consensus from advice received from locals was all very similar. Within the city centre and main tourist hotspots it's like any other major city around the world; if you remain vigilant, take universal safety measures, like you would anywhere else, and like we had throughout our trip prior to Cape Town, then the likelihood is you’ll be fine. Don’t flaunt your valuables, don’t store all your money in one place just in case and watch out for baboons. However, at night, advice changed a fair amount, and apart from tourist hotspots such as V&A waterfront, we got an uber everywhere. The only exception to this was walking at night with our tour group of 24 including a local tour guide.
Lions Head
It is common to do both Lions Head and Table Mountain for sunrise or sunset. Particularly, in the height of summer, you’ll probably want to do this to avoid the heat of the day. Prior to our trip we knew we wanted to hike Lions Head for sunrise. The next question was whether we needed a guide, and so the saga started. After doing extensive research online prior to flying out, and getting very mixed messages as to whether a guide was recommended, we decided we’d wait to get advice from our tour guides and see if anyone else wanted to join from our overland tour, before deciding anything. For reference, we were travelling as a group of 4 girls and had just finished a G Adventures tour with 20 others. Our online research brought up a number of tour operators pricing guides at around £45 to £75 per person, whilst recognising there isn’t a price on safety, at that cost we were not taking any decision lightly. After asking our tour guides, locals, South African friends and hostel workers, the mix messages continued:
Depends on size of group vs how many females to males ratio
If it’s all female vs You’ll be fine as a group of 4 girls
What time you want to leave vs don’t consider it before sunrise
What valuables you want to carry if any vs Remain vigilant and you’ll be fine
Definitely don’t consider it without a guide vs As long as your travel smart you’ll be fine
We were left even more indecisive, a further 8 from our tour group wanted to join us, so decided with others from our tour, if we could get a guide for considerably cheaper than the costs we’d seen so far, we’d go for it, if not we’d head out as a group without a guide and with less valuables in tow. Our hostel offered to help us get a guide for free but couldn’t ensure anything. So, we got in touch with Atlantic Outlook, as recommended by a friend, despite the fact they were sold out online, they managed to get us a guide. Atlantic Outlook charged the equivalent of £15 per person, considerably cheaper than the other options we had previously found.
You start off at the parking lot on Signal Hill Road, where your guide will meet you, also worth mentioning there's wifi here, for anyone that needs to order an uber. Lance, our guide, took us on the best route for a sunrise view, knew the best photo spots and was very knowledgeable and provided fruit, biscuits, tea and coffee at the top. We were a large group in the end, but even if you don’t deem a guide necessary from a safety aspect, (most locals and tourists we passed were hiking without a guide), we wouldn’t have known the route for a better sunrise view. In addition, he was there for anyone who needed help with the ‘chains’ part of the route.
Part way up the hike to the top of Lions Head, there is an option to take the quicker route, via the ‘chains’ or the slightly longer route up to the top, it is clearly marked with a sign, so you can’t miss it. The word ‘chains’ makes it sound very daunting, don’t let it intimidate you. As rock climbers we might be a bit biased though. Essentially, it is a little bit like via ferrata, in terms of the small horseshoe feet holds, but also nowhere near as extreme as via ferrata. If you’re worried then take the alternative route, you’ll still reach the summit pretty quickly.
We got lucky with the weather and did not have to change any plans to get a clear view up Lions Head, first try, with no cloud in sight. Cape Towns vegetation is prone to regular wild fires, so seeing the whole mountain in bloom bursting with colour, as we hiked up, added to its beauty.
Table Mountain
There were now just the 4 of us and after discussing how we felt on Lions Head, we opted to hike up Table Mountain without a guide. It is important to add that due to this, we took the most popular route, later in the morning; Platteklip Gorge. We also needed the quickest route, which took us roughly 2hours - zig-zagging straight up, as one of our friends had a flight to catch later that day. We weren’t so lucky with the weather for Table Mountain and as we ascended, the cloud cover got thicker and thicker, this didn’t dampen our spirits though, we were thankful for the views we got from Lions Head and got some cool silhouette photos in the clouds instead.
Again, Atlantic Outlook do run this as a guided hike. Some of our tour group had the chance to join Atlantic Outlook guide Lance again, taking on a more adventurous and much less popular route up Table Mountain, India Venster. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and I’m sure we’d have joined them had we had the time. Taking approximately 4 hours to reach the top, this more challenging route takes you up a more dramatic part of the mountain with more dramatic views and exciting hiking. For this route they said a guide was invaluable from a safety aspect, but not in the way you’d immediately think when you think of Cape Town, despite being alone on the route. The route was more physical, exposing you to greater heights and required some scrambling in parts, some members of the group needing the aid of a guide.
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