I had the crazy idea that we would hike Table Mountain with our friends visiting from overseas, who have never been up the Mountain. To be fair, it is actually relatively easy to climb the Mountain if you can for example walk for 3 hours. I soon realised 20 minutes in that I would never go on such a walk, let alone a hike, and I decided I would take the Cable Car up instead. Unfortunately this proved to be much harder. I stood in the “Don’t have a ticket queue” for 2 hours, and as I was literally about to put my foot into the cable car, but all of my family and friends had already made their way down with the cable car after hiking up!

Whether you climb the mountain or take the cable car up and down, here are some tried and tested tips:

  1. If you choose to hike, make sure you go with a guide (we went with with Darren).
  2. We did the Platteklip Gorge Route which I would totally recommend if kids are in tow. At just over 2.5 hours it is the right about time they can manage – unless of course you are all super hikers already!
  3. Wake up early! And by that 5h30 was actually probably the latest we coudl have been atthe bottom before the weather would start getting too warm.
  4. You need water! And snacks. Seriously, the day after a lady had to be air lifted simply because she was dehydrated she couldn’t make it back down.
  5. And now for some cable car tips: Buy your tickets online at www.webtickets.co.za and buy the early bird tickets.
  6. If you get the early bird tickets you need only arrive 10 minutes before beuase even if there is a queue for ticket holders they will let you go up before the non-early bird arrivals.
  7. Buy your tickets at the beginning of the week, that way if their is wind/cloud you still have many mornings to try and go up the mountain.