Posts Tagged silvermine

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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Elephants Eye Cave Hike – Silvermine Reserve

May 3, 2009 at 7:16 pm · Filed under In / around Cape Town, Travel ·Tagged , , , , , ,

On such a FABULOUS day as today, one should take advantage and be OUT in nature. So yes, finally, I went for a hike again. After all family and friends visiting I now have some time again to go hopefully on some more hikes.
I had never been up to Elephants Eye so it was exciting to add this one to the list. Although there was a rescue helicopter, rescueing someone off the mountain, I thought it was a fairly easy hike up. Well signposted, many people around, not too streneous. And the VIEWS! WoW!! False Bay looked stunning, the sea not a single little wave, nature was quiet (quite rare for the Cape with winds and storms all most all the time). It was just perfect. And, what a bonus to see the king proteas bloom. Beautiful! It was the first time that I saw them in the wild so I was very excited about that. The cave is huge and you can walk into it. See pics for views. We were in AWE! Bit slippery becasue of the sand, yes, I also landed on my bum!
You park the car near the dam in the Silvemine reserve. With a wild card you can take your dog as well.

View over False Bay from the cave

View over False Bay from the cave

King proteas

King proteas

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Orangekloof Hiking Trail, Cape Town

August 23, 2008 at 12:12 pm · Filed under Travel ·Tagged , , , ,

View over Houtbay

View over Houtbay

 

I spent a weekend on Table Mountain hiking the Orangekloof trail – and it was amazing – 5 girls, 37Kms, great views, stunning sunsets, wonderfull fynbos and of course the very important Chocolate and red wine. Now thats the way to get back to nature.
Looooooong time ago I had booked for the Orangekloof Hiking Trail. It’s often fully booked because it’s one of the most beautiful hiking trails around Cape Town and one needs a special permit to enter the nature reserve.
So, being very organised, just unpacked from Hong Kong, I was looking forward to some time in nature, with friends. 8 friends had booked so nice bunch. I offered to do the shopping because it’s a self-catering trail (that way I make sure there are enough delicious things so I don’t get grumpy, LAST thing we want to happen).
The Friday night before it was HAULING. The Cape wind was terrible and I think we all we’re lying in bed with the thought: Hm, hope we’re not gonna blow off the mountain. Vigorous text messages were send back and forth from 4am in the morning, apparently. Luckily that one certain person didn’t have my mobile nr.
Well, anyway, at 6h30 3 people had ditched out and there were 5 left. I always think: we should at least START. We could always turn around. But you know what? It turned out to be the most fabulous Cape winter weather during the entire weekend. Lovely sunshine, crisp air, no wind. WAUW!! We were SO lucky!
At 8am we met our guides at Silvermine Dam. Nico was there to fetch our dinner, bring in to the camp and make sure our steaks would be in the fridge by ETA (=estimated time of arrival). South Africa was playing rugby in the afternoon and soon we found out that we could actually watch it at Constantia Nek because we would pass the restaurant. Why we bothered, I have no clue, but we DID watch South Africa loose from New Zealand in the 3 Nations. It was a terrible terrible match and an absolute waste of time. But, we had fun, enjoyed the pommes frites and some beers.
Only half an hour to walk to what must be one of the most STUNNING camps. Beautifully done, really! All building material used is from foreign trees that have been taken out from the reserve.
Being now 5 girls, one of us had to become the braai (=BBQ)-master and I knew it shouldn’t be me….Nadja, very brave, was the appointed braai-master and she did very well. We had an absolute lovely dinner with lots of red wine and chocolats for desert.
The 16th of August was a full moon eclipse happening. We watched it from the deck. After an not so early rise in the morning, a nice breakfast is was time to hike another 15, 17, 19 km. We have no clue how much it exactly was but it felt as if we had walked 35 km! Poeh! Only uphill most of the day but absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Disa Gorge was my favorite part with big ferns and streaming water. By 3h30pm we were at the cable car and that was the end of the hike. We all enjoyed thoroughly. We must have hiked around 40 km in these 2 days.
The route: Silvermine, Vlakkenberg, Constantiaberg/Nek, Orangekloof, Disa Gorge, Kasteelspoort, Platteklip Gorge. The cost: ZAR 425 per person, including permits, overnight stay in tented camp, guides, luggage/food transport, cable car ticket to go down. It’s an absolute treat. You can contact me if you would like to make a booking: jessy@jl-unlimited.com.

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