We parked our cars in Theresa Avenue, Camps Bay and headed off to the pipe track to the start of the Kasteelspoort trail. We were ten hikers in total. The weather was pretty cold at the bottom and knew at the summit it would be even colder so we made sure we had our layers of clothing on, beanies and plenty of water.
Kasteelspoort is the most popular and easiest path up the 12 Apostles above Camps Bay. It is a long diagonally ascending path which crosses the Valken Ravine stream bed then rounding the corner of Kasteels Buttress.
Once we got to the top we followed the signposted direction towards the Woodhead and Hely-Hutchinson reservoirs and the Valley of the Red Gods. The total height gain to the summit is 560m.
As always, the flowers and view were breathtaking. It was very cold at the top with an icy wind so, needless to say, we didn’t see many other people on the top of Table Mountain.
Our original plan was to walk to Maclears Beacon then the front face of Table Mountain towards the upper cable station and back down via the Diagonal trail back to the cars. We decided to cut the hike short, went through the Valley of Isolation, past the Scouts hut and up into Echo Valley towards Platteklip Gorge. From here we swung south past Grotto Cave, down the ladders and exited via Diagonal.
Diagonal is a pretty tricky descent with lots of loose rocks near the top so you have to tread carefully and watch your footing. It gets easier when the trail swings to the right in a diagonal direction. About two thirds of the way down you pass Porcupine Cave to the right. It is quite easy to miss the cave if you’re fixated on watching your feet and just wanting to get down to the pipe track. One thing about the Diagonal descent it seems to go on and on especially for those that aren’t hiking fit and feeling the tired feet after a long walk.
The hike took us close to 6 hours to complete. My advise to anybody who wants to do this hike is to rather ascend via Diagonal and descend via Kasteelspoort. When you’re tired the last thing you want is a tricky descent.
