Table Mountain is omnipresent in Cape Town. You cannot wander anywhere within the Mother City without this gentle giant looming over or dominating the horizon. An essential part of every traveler’s visit to the city logically includes a trip to the top of the Table. Nowadays this is rather easy, you simply buy yourself a retour ticket on the Table Cable Car and off you go. But hey, where is the adventure in that? Wouldn’t it be way cooler if you could say you actually hiked up that monster. Do you want to have the feeling you really deserved that breathtaking sunset? Then by all means, read on! In this post I elaborate on how we conquered the Mountain and put some wine on the Table.

Route Selection

This is probably the most important part of your adventure. There are over 60 routes that lead to the top of the Table Mountain. These vary from a long uphill hike to dangerous climbs, not to be attempted without experience. The most popular ones are: Platteklip Gorge, India Venster, Skeleton Gorge and 12 Apostles. Do check out some information on all of them before attempting one. The general summary is:

• Platteklip Gorge: fastest way up the mountain without requiring actual climbing (2.5-3 hours)
• India Venster: do not attempt if you’re not comfortable with heights, amazing views all the way up (3.5 hours)
• Skeleton Gorge: hiking through the jungle and emerging on the top without having to climb (4-5 hours)
• 12 Apostles: Ocean views, peace and quiet and routes with varying difficulty (4 hours and more depending on route)

There are of course, besides the normal hiking routes, over 200 ways to actually climb up Table Mountain, involving ropes and rock climbing gear. So if you’re into that, you can spent a whole year exploring different routes.

Preparation

For most routes you do not need any special equipment. Just make sure you are wearing comfortable clothes and shoes. Do pack enough water and bring some energy rich snacks. You will get exhausted and you do not want to get dehydrated in the middle of your hike.

Once you’ve picked a route, inform yourself well about its start and end point. Take enough spare time and check when the sun will set. You do not want to be in the middle of a gorge when darkness falls. If you are attempting one of the more adventurous routes, consider hiring a guide. They are not that expensive and often include your ticket back down with the Table Mountain Cable Car, depending on the route. You can find a highly recommended one here.

Talking about the Cable Car, if you do want to take it back down after your hike, make sure your route ends up somewhere close. The mountain is huge and if you surface somewhere on the other side, you might still need an hour to hike to the top station. You do not want to miss the last car down, so check the closing time.Also take into account that in case of harsh wind the Cable Car might be closed without warning.

Platteklip Gorge

Like many travelers we chose Platteklip Gorge as our route. Since we had limited time in Cape Town this fast route up suited our needs the best. Our plan was to hike up Table Mountain in the late afternoon so we could watch the sunset from the top and take the Cable Car back down.

Preparation

We had checked around what time the sun would set up front, which was around 7:15 PM. The last car down would be around 8 PM. Since the route was estimated to take about 3 hours worst case, we know we should start around 4PM. So we decided to pack some sandwiches, some snacks and water in our backpacks and left the hostel at about 3:45 PM. We took an uber and got dropped off at the Lower Cable Car Station after a short 15 min drive.

Happy Hiking

We enquired at the ticket office if we should buy tickets up front but they assured us we could still buy them at the upper station once we got there. So we started walking further down the road to find the start of the route we wanted to take. After some searching, we finally found a sign somewhat hidden behind some bushes that indicated Platteklip Gorge. Full of energy and excited we started to walk the dusty trail up the initial slope of the mountain.

After about 15 min of hiking at a fast pace up the winding path we realized we had taken a wrong turn. We were going back towards the cable station along the lower edge of the rocky cliff that rises from the lower slope right to the top. So we double back and quickly found the entrance to the actual Gorge.

The Gorge

About twenty minutes later we were already thinking that this was not going to be so hard after all. We had made good progress and seemed already to be way more up than where we started. However it soon turned out we had underestimated the mountain. About halfway into the Gorge the winding path turns into a rocky stairway. We started climbing up with enthusiasm but after some hundreds of uneven rocky steps we started to show some signs of exhaustion. By some signs I mean I was huffing and puffing and sweating my ass off.

When meeting people making their way down we kept asking how far it was to reach the top. Unfortunately answer varied from 15 min to an hour, so that wasn’t any help. Taking more and more breaks and dealing with steeper and more uneven steps we slowly made our way up the second half of the Gorge. It was now 5:20 PM, about one hour after starting the trail.

Stairway to heaven

Luckily the lower estimates of our descending friends were closer to the truth. About 15 minutes later we reached the end of the rocky steps. Light poured in from the top and the whole scene looked like a true stairway to heaven to me at that point. After climbing that stairway, the heaven we reached was full of light and almost level path. It was 5:35 PM and we had reached the top. However we did not yet reach or destination.

We needed to follow the path for another 20 minutes before getting to the most North-Western corner of the table, where the Upper Cable Car station is located. After exactly 1 hour and 40 minutes we had conquered the mountain. We quickly realized why we were so exhausted. In our very manly way of trying to prove we could beat the estimated time we had chopped off an hour.

Wine on the Table

Another reason for the exhaustion could also be the amount of partying the nights before. However without regrets we pulled two wine bottles and some cups out of our backpacks and started enjoying the beautiful views from the top of the mountain. We ordered some cold Savannas in the bar and watched the sun set over Camps Bay.

Slightly buzzed we took the last cable car down. We were apparently not the only people that had enjoyed the sunset with a drink. During the descent the entire car started singing spontaneously. We gladly joined in and when we disembarked, we found the closest taxi driver and got in with a smile on our face.

The Map

You can find all essential points of the hike on the below map Just select the “Table Mountain Hike” layer.