Hiking up the Twelve Apostles to Table Mountain
After the incredible India Venster hike a few weeks ago, I signed up for another Table Mountain hike – this one called the “Twelve Apostles Hike“.
This hike originates in Camp Bay and follows the Kasteelspoort trail up and through a gorge to the Twelve Apostles. From there it follows the ‘spine’ of the Twelve Apostles, through some gorges and valleys, to the top of Table Mountain.
This post highlights some of the things and views you’ll see along the way.
But unlike the India Venster hike, you don’t absolutely need a guide on this one – follow the instructions in this post and you can easily do it on your own.
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Who and Why you should do this hike: This is an easy hike. Technically you don’t have to worry about rungs or chains (you have a couple of easy ladders to climb). You also don’t have to be super fit, it’s in no way as strenuous a hike as some of the other hikes up Table Mountain. You should do this hike because it is a very different perspective than hikes starting on the city bowl side.
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The starting point is the Camps Bay Pipe Track (sign below). Tell your taxi driver to bring you there. Once there it’s easy…just follow the trail up. You’ll soon be looking back at beautiful views of Camps Bay with Lion’s Head on the right.
If you start out early, one of the advantages of this hike is that you’ll spend the most strenuous parts of it hiking in the shadows, the sun blocked out by the Twelve Apostles.
Within the first 20 minutes of starting out, you’ll arrive at a juncture of trails. Continue straight up along “Kasteelspoort”.
It will take about 45 minutes to get to this ledge, called the “Breakfast Table”.
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The next part brings you, through a gorge, up to the ‘backend’ of Table Mountain. There are some water reservoirs here that even to this day feed water by pipe down to the city below. You’ll also see ruins of Cape Town’s first cable car (built on this side of the mountain) as well as remnants of an old railway – both were built in the 1890’s to bring up material supplies for the construction of the reservoirs.
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From here the hike continues through the valleys and ridges along the spine of the Twelve Apostles. You’ll have great views the whole way: down the peninsula, across towards Muizenberg, at some points staring right down at Camps Bay. You’ll also see lots of colourful plant life.
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It took us 3 ½ hours to complete the hike up to the Cable Car station on Table Mountain. From there we walked around the top, enjoying the fantastic views, before taking the Cable Car down.
Would I recommend this hike? Yes, the same great views as other hikes – but easy for those who don’t like the ‘extreme’ in their adventure.
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Top Hiking Tours to Experience in Cape Town
“Must do hikes in Cape Town”? Lion’s Head (pretty easy. Read up on that here) and India Venster (see the post on that here). Cape Town is hiker’s paradise.
Related: 15 Things to Do in and around Cape Town
Related: Photo Essay: the Atlantic Coastline of Cape Town
Related: Travel Bloggers on Tourist Traps and Disappointing Places – and where you should go Instead.
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This looks like a fabulous hike! The hubby and I are headed to Cape Town in September and are looking to hike a couple different Table Mountain routes while we are there. We are planning to do India Venster with HikeTableMountain, but are considering doing the 12 Apostles route on our own. Do you think this route would be safe for two people to do? Were there others hiking on the trail or is it fairly remote? We’ve heard from some that it is not wise to hike without a guide or in a group smaller than 4. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. Also from looking at google maps it appears that the start is at the junction of Tafelberg Road and Kloof Nek. Is this correct?
Hi Marissa,
You’ll have a great time, I wish I was back there.
No problem doing the 12 Apostles hike on your own, it’s very easy.
To get to the starting point, google “Kasteelspoort”. It’s actually further south of Camps Bay and the starting point of the trail starts off Theresa Avenue. You can also tell him “Camps Bay Pipe Track” and he should know what you are talking about. But using both these things you can find the exact location of the starting point of the trail with a google map search.
Glad you’re also doing India Venster, please tell Riian I said hi. It’s a SPECTACULAR hike but has a few scary moments.