Orange Kloof Forest Trail

The day was per­fect for a hike – cool winds and blue skies over­head – and our group set off in anti­cip­a­tion of cool forests, moun­tain streams and beau­ti­ful views. We weren't dis­ap­poin­ted. Orange Kloof is a par­tic­u­larly beau­ti­ful, pro­tec­ted area above Hout Bay, which we entered via the Constantia Nek park­ing lot, through the gates on the left, at the bottom.

It's a restric­ted part of the Table Mountain National Park and you can only ramble through its splend­our if you are in pos­ses­sion of a per­mit (you'll need to book as many as 3 months in advance with the Hout Bay Forestry sta­tion) and a guide — ours was Clem, an incred­ibly fit and know­ledge­able octo­gen­arian who eas­ily scaled hills and enter­tained us to anec­dotal moments on the local fauna and flora and former hikes.

The Orange Kloof trail is cir­cu­lar and takes one behind Table Mountain to the source of the Disa River and then back to the top end of Hout Bay. We didn't do the full cir­cuit, which is 8 kilo­metres and can take 6 hours. We cut out the bit to Hell's Gate (the source of the river) and took a pleas­ur­ably ramble through the forest instead.

It is also another of the hik­ing trails in Cape Town that you can add to your child-friendly list. Our four-year old com­pleted the hike, although not without much win­ing towards the end, and a con­cer­ted effort on the part of his par­ents to get him to play ball but he man­aged it without any of the side effects that my hus­band and I dis­played the fol­low­ing morn­ing, gingerly grim­acing when bend­ing or step­ping down stairs! (but then we're so unfit, that octo­gen­ari­ans and four-year olds leave us in their dust).

Once in the val­ley all sight and sound of civil­isa­tion mira­cu­lously dis­ap­pears and one could be miles from Cape Town without any trouble at all. Bird song, some of the most incred­ible moun­tain scenery and spring flowers accom­pan­ied us as we headed down towards Hout Bay. I con­fess to mut­ter­ing silently under my breath as a down­hill inev­it­ably means an accom­pa­ny­ing uphill, but it wasn't until later that we had to ascend.

Our first stop was at one of the 5 Hoerikwaggo ten­ted camps, set right in the midst of the beauty in Orange Kloof. We were all rather taken with the idea of spend­ing a night here after wan­der­ing through the camp. As one blog describes it, it's a little like some­thing out of Survivor, and eas­ily provides accom­mod­a­tion like that found in plushy private game parks. There are a series of sturdy semi-permanent tents, each with a latte (gum­pole) roof that extends at the back to form a sheltered ver­andah. Incredible to think that this part of the Table Mountain National Park used to be for­bid­den territory.

There is a kit­chen, toi­lets that use only bio­de­grad­able soap, recyc­ling bins and some fairly ori­ginal light­ing. Everything is linked by a curving board­walk. There was also a com­munal room with a ver­andah that effort­lessly exten­ded into a firepit area done in a labyrinth style that spoke of nights under the stars and good com­pany. Everything from the kit­chen coun­ters, the tables, chairs and the walls are all craf­ted from alien veget­a­tion felled and milled in the Table Mountain National Park, and other sus­tain­able resources. And incred­ibly beau­ti­ful. The stone walls of the com­munal area in par­tic­u­lar caught our ima­gin­a­tion, and the design has a min­imum envir­on­mental impact.

We sub­sequently dis­covered that 3 of the 5 overnight ten­ted camps are open for hikers – Orange Kloof, Silvermine below Noordhoek Peak, and Slangkop Point. The Orange Kloof part of the Hoerikwaggo begins at Silvermine, and the trail price, for two days' worth of hik­ing and an overnight at the ten­ted camp is R420 p/p. The slee­p­over, for those who don't want to bother with the hike, is R350 p/p. Find out more about the trails and overnights here http://www.tablemountainpark.com/parks/table_mountain/ht/

A little later, after meet­ing up with a couple of horse riders on the path just above the out­skirst of Hout Bay, we veered right into the afromont­ane forest itself, and this in par­tic­u­lar was a treat. Filled with yel­low­wood trees, brack­ets, neat little flowers, fyn­bos, rocks that make good seats and numer­ous river cross­ings, our hike took on a new fla­vour. We stopped again to sit under the trees and munch on a couple of sand­whiches – most of ours were already depleted as our son began eat­ing the minute we left the park­ing lot – and it was these stops that really allowed you to drink in the sur­rounds, so I was glad of them. Clem, our guide, was so well pre­pared, he brought along boil­ing water and a sep­ar­ate tea bag!

Towards the end of the hike, we took a minor detour to where the river pools – a per­fect end if you have kids along as there is a chance for them to paddle and play along the banks. Then it was uphill (mostly) and a return via a dif­fer­ent path to the park­ing lot. At least a couple of times, Clem gave us a choice as to what type of trail we would like to fol­low, which made it inter­est­ing and gave the group a chance to design their own ver­sion of the trail.

Before the hike I had no idea that such a place exis­ted. And I would do the hike again given the chance.

Click on the thumb­nails to view enlarged pho­to­grahs — All pho­tos by and © Wanda Coustas.

Useful Links:
Western Cape Hiking Trails
Things to Do in Cape Town
Cape Town Hiking Trails
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