This morning my friend Liz and I were actually on our way to the Helderberg Nature Reserve in Somerset Wes, when we found out that THAT hike was not happening. Ok, quickly made a new plan to hike a bit closer and went to the Silvermine Nature Reserve. From Cape Town you take the M3 down to Muizenberg. At the end of the M3 you turn right and then go left up Oue kaapse weg, direction Fish Hoek. You will have spectacular views of Muizenberg Beach, Tokai Forest, False Bay, the back of Table Mountain and the city. Once you drove up all the way and turn around the bend, the entrance to the Silvermine nature reserve is on your right hand side. You pay an entrance fee of ZAR 20 pp if you don’t have a wild card (which I had forgotten..). There’s a beautiful dam so for those who just want to relax, take your picnic basket or braai kit and relax. It’s really beautiful! The flowers were amazing today as well. We keep smelling these lovely purple flowers and we don’t know what they are. Anyone?? They smell like very nice soap.
The directions in the park are not really super clear but there are friendly parking guards to point you in the right direction. You can’t really get lost because all paths go around. We first hiked towards Elephant’s Eye Cave from where you have, again, a beautiful view. Sorry, but we’re really fortunate to live in such an amazing place and enjoy all the natural beauty so close to home. We felt very privileged again today. WoW! After Elephant’s Cave, we moved back to the gravel road and hiked until we came to the look out point over Hout Bay. It must be one of the most beautiful sightings in the world. I’ve been around the globe quite a bit but nothing beats this!
View of Hout Bay from Silvermine look out point
And this picture was taken with a Blackberry!! Sure Liz has better pics as well. After resting a bit and taking in all this incredible beauty we moved on to we didn’t know exactly where but we took our time to explore the whole area. And then we found another great spot to relax and overlook Noordhoek beach.
Noordhoek Beach from Silvermine Reserve
We hiked for about 4 hours and felt ready for the week ahead again. The hikes are moderate, not too much climbing and scrambling, because you start already very high. So enjoy great views without tooo much of an effort!
