Hello, hello! I hope you are having a wonderful day so far!! One of man highlights from my time in South Africa was hiking Lion’s Head Mountain in Cape Town. During this trip I was able to check so many different things off my bucket list, this hike being one of them- truly a dream come true.
This hike is quite famous thanks to the jaw dropping views, and what some would call ‘instagram worthy’ photos.
Although it may seem as though getting to some of these ‘spots’ is a grueling hike, the entire hike up and back took us maybe 3.5 hours and that includes the time it took us to walk from our hostel to the start point, which was half the battle.
I won’t lie though, the mountain does look a little intimidating from afar. Personally I found myself thinking, “wait we are hiking to the top of THAT mountain and the whole thing is supposed to take 2-4 hours??”
Nevertheless, it really is a simple hike and extremely worthwhile in the long run. Next thing you know you’ll be hanging out at the top admiring Cape Town and the surrounding area from this lovely summit.
The photo above shows Table Mountain with its ‘table cloth’ on. This was taken towards the beginning of the hike. To get to the top you basically slowly wrap your way around the mountain until getting to the peak.
Above are some photos of the flora, fauna, and little butterflies hanging out along the way. The nature is truly quite remarkable. It makes sense as to why Table Mountain is considered to be one of the new 7 wonders of nature.
Above are a couple more photos of different views of the area as we wrapped our way around the mountain. In this slideshow there are photos looking at Table Mountain and the 12 apostles (with the Table Cloth), Camp’s Bay looking towards the Cape of Good Hope, and the city area of Cape Town looking the opposite direction of Camp’s Bay.
As I mentioned earlier, the trail is relatively simple, apart from it being a bit steep. The only thing to consider would be in certain parts there are ladders or the occasional step/ chains bolted into the rocks that you will need to use to get to the very top. Please do not let this deter you from doing this hike in any way. Most of these things start about two thirds of the way up, so even if climbing isn’t exactly up your alley, you can still get breathtaking views of Cape Town, Table Mountain, the ocean, 12 apostles, and Camp’s Bay.
Above is a photo looking toward signal hill. If you were looking to do a little bit extra hiking, adding in the signal hill hike would be a wonderful option. In our instance, our time was a bit more limited so we only did the Lion’s Head hike.
A view from the top looking towards the ocean. I love how teeny tiny all the buildings and even the large ships in the distance look.
A couple more views from the top just to put into perspective how ‘instagram worthy’ it really is. It’s pretty exciting being able to sit at the edge of these cliffs and just take in all the beauty of everything around you.
One of the sweetest parts of the hike was seeing these little guys hanging out at the very top of the mountain. We learned on a tour later on in the trip that these little guys are technically in the same species as elephants????
As we descended down from the top, the sky began to clear and we were treated to a lovely view of the 12 apostles. If you take a closer look you’ll notice about 12 little ‘bumps’ in the mountain. Apparently if you are looking for a really great full day hike this is a wonderful option!
To say this experience was anything less than extraordinary would simply be false. It is really hard to put into words what it felt like to experience this because photos and words do not do it justice.
This hike was seriously a dream come true and exceeded all the expectations I had from my internet research.
Needless to say, if you find yourself in Cape Town and are feeling adventurous this is 100% worth the hike.
Hannah On the Go 