The Walk to Elephant's Eye Cave

We had no idea when we set out last week­end to Silvermine, intent on walk­ing to Elephant's Eye Cave, just what the walk entailed, or we may have had second thoughts. That's not to say that it's a dif­fi­cult walk, it isn't (bar the last bit that climbs to the cave), but we had a mon­ster munch in tow, who, amaz­ingly, left us in his dust in his efforts to reach the cave imme­di­ately he sighted it (pity about the saga get­ting back down!)

Silvermine, which forms part of the Table Mountain National Park with its entrance gate at the top of Ou Kaapse Weg about 20 minutes' out­side of Cape Town's centre, is a mag­net over week­ends for fam­il­ies. People settle on the banks of the dam along which there are pretty, shady pic­nic spots, whilst hikers set off on vari­ous gentle walks that sel­dom tax but ful­fil the very neces­sary con­tact with nature we all crave.

If  ardu­ous is your thing, you can take on the walk up the back of Table Mountain from Silvermine, which adds up to a full day's hik­ing, or you can take to the hills on your moun­tain bike, as some did this past week­end, which I'm sure provides a hefty surge of endorphines given the speed at which the group came fly­ing down the hill past us – the mon­ster munch was tak­ing notes!

We battled our way past the reeded Hoerikwaggo Trail camp­site through an already over­flow­ing park­ing lot, and launched ourselves up the hill with a myriad other parties intent on sim­ilar (Silvermine is a pop­u­lar choice over a week­end, so the earlier you get there, the bet­ter, par­tic­u­larly if it's a pic­nic spot you're after).

It was a per­fect day for it. The fyn­bos was in full swing, sun birds by the dozen, ericas and heath­ers in full bloom on the sides of the moun­tains — where water drain­age is bet­ter, I believe, than in our front garden where an ongo­ing battle to keep a par­tic­u­lar erica bush alive long enough to flower ensues(!) — and very little wind.

Most of the walk is along well-hewn paths and gravel roads, which makes it fairly easy going, give or take the odd over-achiever who makes doing the route double-time their goal for the morn­ing! The views are pretty spec­tac­u­lar the higher you get, but the biggest sur­prise is get­ting over the hill to the Tokai forest side, and look­ing out across the False Bay Coast from there – right across the flats all the way to the Hottentot Holland Mountains.

Just when you thought that the views couldn't get more picture-card per­fect, one heads up the Elephant towards the eye, and the scenery gets bet­ter still. The Elephant's Head was alive with ericas and the pink against the vivid green of the fyn­bos and the blue of the skies was breath­tak­ing. At least it was a handy excuse to catch my breath on the way up the final leg, together with an attempt to find our house in the val­ley spread out below us!

The cave itself is huge — a great slash in the wall of the moun­tain with an even smal­ler mini cave towards the back end of the cave. There were only a few groups of people ming­ling around the cave when we finally got there, includ­ing a dachshund (appar­ently if you have a Wild card you can take your dogs as well).

Some people attempt the walk from the Tokai manor house in Tokai forest, although that ver­sion of the walk looks par­tic­u­larly strenu­ous as you're going at it uphill most of the way. The advant­age of this route would be that dur­ing sum­mer at least the ini­tial two thirds of the walk is under can­op­ies of trees.

It's just one more reminder of how spoilt we are in Cape Town for beau­ti­ful moments and out­door activ­it­ies moments from your door.

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Cape Town Hiking Trails
Things to do in Cape Town
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