Posts Tagged Noordhoek

Hiking Silvermine, awesome views of Hout Bay & Noordhoek

September 5, 2009 at 8:07 pm · Filed under In / around Cape Town, South Africa, Travel ·Tagged , , , , ,

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

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

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!

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Hiking from Noordhoek Beach to Silvermine Dam

October 21, 2008 at 8:52 am · Filed under In / around Cape Town ·Tagged , , , , ,

Protea

Protea

Yes, last weekend I was very active and into all kinds of activities. Hiking is one of my favourite things to do, almost sacred to me. The mountains around Cape Town and the peninsula are just magic. So last Sunday I joined 2 of my hiking buddies, Dave & Sean on another amazing hike. Although the weather didn’t really look great in the morning, we just decided to go anyway. So glad we did!

We met at the parking of Noordhoek Beach. Sean had left his car at Silvermine Dam so that would be our finish. The funny thing with Sean & Dave is, that you never exactly know what you’re getting yourself into. For them this was also the first time to hike this trail. I know that they hike every weekend so when I’m not traveling, I just always text/email them and they make the plan. Very nice not to be the tour guide for a change!

From Noordhoek Beach we went up Chapman’s Peak. Boy, the wind was nearly blowing us off the mountain! Just in time I could catch my cap. I have to be honest though, once we were up there and walking around the mountain, the wind was not as bad as we thought and it was actually very enjoyable not to be so hot. Perfect day for hiking! After a hearty sandwich in a spot with a 270 degrees view of Noordhoek, Fish Hoek and False Bay, we had another hill to climb: Noordhoek Peak. That wasn’t really calculated beforehand but hey, that’s what we had to climb before getting to the car. I have to be honest again, I was getting quite exhausted. It was my first hike since a month. But Sean and Dave were very patient and kept the spirit going. So YES, we also got to that peak and then we could almost see Silvermine Dam. The path down took us a bit longer than foreseen but it was very enjoyable. The flowers were beautiful and there was even a bit of sunshine. By 13h45 we reached the car after about 4.5 hours of SERIOUS hiking. Thanks guys, it was great again and I’ll see you next weekend!

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