Cape Town Day Hikes: A Newlands Forest Route

11 December 2022

‘In Every Walk With Nature,

One Finds Far More Than He seeks.”

John Muir

Newlands Forest recently made my list of child-friendly hikes. But Newlands Forest, Cape Town’s last remaining truly indigenous forest would make any top 10 list of any hikes in Cape Town.

Newlands has everything a nature lover wants; shaded avenues, hidden trails, some with Tolkienesque overtones, to ravines and some secret, uber-dangerous gullies. This latter to be avoided at all costs.

Not only is it a child-friendly, pet-friendly, let’s go for a run/stroll/hike kinda hike, it’s also the doorway to some of Cape Town’s more exciting, exhilarating hikes.

Everyone knows about the excellent workout you can get going up and/or down Newlands Ravine. But Newlands also has secrets, dark ones, literally.

Dark Gorge, Dark Gully, and Agatha’s Gully, as well as Hiddingh Ascension and Els Buttress are all hikes that require stamina, and a head for heights. I am sweating as I type this. I have only done Agatha’s Gully and Els Buttress myself, and long enough ago to remember they were hard but not never-again-hard so I would like to do them again.

But I do need to do Dark Gorge (not Dark Gully… this one requires ropes) to bucket list it. I am scared people. But it must be hiked. If anyone has any tips or ideas, please reach out!

The challenge with a lot of these trails is they are badly marked and/or overgrown, so the possibility of getting lost or stuck on a ledge is very real. Not an ideal situation.

In 2012 a friend’s nephew went running up Dark Gorge and died. Don’t know the circumstances of his death but it took a few days for them to discover and retrieve his body. So yeah. I’m terrified.

Please note that Dark Gorge is a challenging, technical hike and is NOT recommended for beginners or the unfit.

“If You Can Find A Path With No Obstacles

It Probably Doesn’t Lead Anywhere.”

Frank A Clarke

Sundays Are Meant For Hiking

Unless I am running a race or away somewhere running a race or doing a hike. It’s my weekly commune with nature. All I know is if I haven’t hiked on a Sunday, my week is not as good as if I had. And most of the sometimes up to 40 pax who often join our group on a Sunday will agree.

It’s not with near zealotry that we converge on a trail on most Sunday mornings, but our bunch is dedicated to their weekly Sunday nature sojourns. We try to mix it up by hiking different trails with varying difficulty levels so there is something for everyone.

Last week our hike leader, Boeta (Uncle) Cassiem Fakier chose Newlands as an easy hike. Boeta Cassiem is 74 years old and this year became the oldest person to enter and complete the African X 3 day trail challenge.

The fantastic organisers at African X created a new category for his age group.

Those of us who hike with B Cassiem every week don’t appreciate that most people in their mid-70s are sitting in a rocking chair somewhere, not climbing mountains and running multi-day trail runs, so we were quite amused when the African X trail organisers made such a fuss of our B Cassiem. (But not as amused as B Cassiem himself!)

I suppose we take his prowess, his gentle leadership, and his sense of humour for granted. B Cassiem is always up for a scrambling hike but considers the fitness and ability of the entire group, regardless of his personal preferences.

He is also completing his 13 peaks challenge and hiked Klaasenskop with that group on Saturday, so chose an easy hike for Sunday.

I was relieved, since we did the Om Die Dam trail run the day before and I was knackered. A gentle forest walk was exactly what I needed.

Dont Be Afraid... Explore!

Tree Bark Stripping

As regular mountain users, we have been aware of the scourge of tree bark stripping, but I saw the boards signposted on the contour for the first time this Sunday.

I don’t recall seeing them when I ran UTCT, but I may have been too tired to notice. Also, there was an injured runner lying at the foot of Nursery Ravine, so that may also have distracted me.

Tree bark felling is a traditional healing method that has been around for millennia, but has now reached epidemic proportions, to the extent that botanists, ecologists and environmentalists fear it may destroy the entire forest.

Below is a segment from the television series, Carte Blanche, that really broke my heart,

Kudus to Taahir Osman and his Take Back Our Mountain volunteers who give up their time which they could have spent with their loved ones to protect our natural resources.

We really need to do better to protect our natural heritage.

Some of these trees are 100s of years old; they will be here when we are turned to dust. Let’s leave something behind for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.

Breakfast Rock

We stopped at the round picnic area to have some coffee and snacks. I am not kidding when I say this is the best part of Sunday hikes, the eats we share.

Also the recipes we share, the catching up with each other’s lives and the hot gossip. Often, we run into other hikers or runners. It’s a social in hiking boots.