25/06: Cape Nature Hiking Trails Hoerikwaggo Trail Table Mountain
Hiking on and around Cape Point is about to get a whole lot better! By June 2010, avid hikers will be able to enjoy a spectacular five-night, six-day trail from Cape Town to Cape Point. The Hoerikwaggo Trail is almost 100km long, and sections of it are already open to members of the public. You can currently book one-, two- and three-night hikes on the trail.
Four hundred previously unemployed path-builders have been involved in the four-year construction of the full 97km trail. Some of these path-builders are now mountain guides, who describe the trail’s natural and cultural wonders to hikers. Others have become porters, tourism staff and rangers. The project has seen the Table Mountain National Park christened with the enviable nickname, “Mountain of Jobs”.
Hoerikwaggo is Khoisan for “mountain of the sea” – the Khoisan’s name for Table Mountain. The proposed five-night trail will allow hikers to trek from Cape Point to Table Mountain, through the Table Mountain National Park.
Three of the five tented camps are already open to hikers: Orange Kloof (above Hout Bay), Silvermine (below Noordhoek Peak) and Slangkop Point (near the Kommetjie Lighthouse). All campsites offer hot water, open fires and fully equipped kitchens. The other two camps will be near the entrance to the Cape Point section of the park, and at the SA Navy’s former Signal School (above Simon’s Town). All the sites were carefully selected, with camps built on land that had been previously damaged.
Four hundred previously unemployed path-builders have been involved in the four-year construction of the full 97km trail. Some of these path-builders are now mountain guides, who describe the trail’s natural and cultural wonders to hikers. Others have become porters, tourism staff and rangers. The project has seen the Table Mountain National Park christened with the enviable nickname, “Mountain of Jobs”.
Hoerikwaggo is Khoisan for “mountain of the sea” – the Khoisan’s name for Table Mountain. The proposed five-night trail will allow hikers to trek from Cape Point to Table Mountain, through the Table Mountain National Park.
Three of the five tented camps are already open to hikers: Orange Kloof (above Hout Bay), Silvermine (below Noordhoek Peak) and Slangkop Point (near the Kommetjie Lighthouse). All campsites offer hot water, open fires and fully equipped kitchens. The other two camps will be near the entrance to the Cape Point section of the park, and at the SA Navy’s former Signal School (above Simon’s Town). All the sites were carefully selected, with camps built on land that had been previously damaged.
