Table Mountain National Park and Hoerikwaggo Trail

Photo courtesy Pet r

The Hoerikwaggo Trails in Table Mountain National Park take in all the natural attractions of the park – beaches and mountain – as well as some city highlights.

Table Mountain National Park (+27 21 701 8692; www.tmnp.co.za), which protects the entire peninsula, combines spectacular mountain and ocean scenery with unique fauna and flora – more than 2000 plant species make up the Cape Floral Kingdom. You should always take a map on any of the easy or more difficult hikes in the park, walk with a group of people and let someone know where you are.

There are designated areas for dog walking, mountain biking, rock climbing, hang-gliding and paragliding, picnicking and fishing. Scuba diving and surfing are other activities you can try in the park – in addition to a ride in the famous cable car to the top of Table Mountain, where the views are breathtaking. There are staffed information centres at the cableway station and Cape Point.

The Hoerikwaggo Trails (27 21 465 8515/9; www.hoerikwaggotrails.co.za) are hiking routes within Table Mountain National Park which take in the Table Mountain chain from the city centre to Cape Point. Comfortable overnight accommodation is provided at the end of a day spent exploring the area’s natural and cultural heritage. The hikes are guided and your kit will be carried for you, leaving you free to enjoy what the Khoisan people called the Mountain of the Sea, or “Hoerikwaggo”.

There are hikes of varying duration. The Table Mountain trail includes a city tour, cable car ride, exploration of the mountain itself and a night in the Overseer’s Cottage on the mountain before ending at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens.

The Orange Kloof trail takes you from Silvermine Dam through the Cape’s unique fynbos vegetation to an overnight stop at a tented camp. On the Silvermine trail, you start at Kommetjie and walk along Noordhoek beach then climb Chapman’s Peak spend a night at the Silvermine tented camp and then have a day walking in the  fynbos.

The Cape of Good Hope trail takes in the area around Cape Point.

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