The Pipe Track and the Kasteelspoort Route

There are lots of benefits living in a city such as Cape Town, Capetonians are so spoilt for choice when it comes to outdoor activities. My girlfriend and two of our friends decided to take a casual walk along the Pipe Track on Table Mountain last weekend and it turned out to be a little more challenging than we thought :)

The Pipe Track was built in 1887 to service the water pipeline running along Table Mountain. Our plan was to spend about 3 hrs walking and then call it a day, little did we know our short walk would lead us to summit Table Mountain.





The Pipe Track is a relatively easy walk, it begins at the intersection of Tafelberg Road and Kloof Nek. After climbing a few stairs you get onto the contour path that runs past the water filtration plant and onto some amazing views of Camps Bay.



https://goo.gl/maps/YnX8WxkBQCy


We set out at 7.30 am on a Saturday morning, the sun was already up but the path we were on would remain in shadow until at least mid day.

As I mentioned the scenery is amazing and there are tons of birds around so if you are a birder then you will love this track.

We stopped at the path called Kasteelspoort where we met a gent who convinced us to find a rock outcrop called Breakfast Rock ( well that's what we were told ) and that it wasn't too far up...it ended up being about 35min away but when we found it it was well worth it.






"Breakfast Rock"


Since we were so close to the top of the mountain we decided to carry on. I really wanted to check out where the old cable station used to be so we made our way up.



Old Cable Station

The reservoirs at the top of the mountain were relatively close to us so we decided to go and visit these too, there is also a Waterworks museum.


















Imagine riding down the mountain in this!?

Hely-Hutchinson Reservoir















The biggest King Protea I have ever seen!

The museum was very cool as it showed some of the equipment used to build the reservoirs and gave a good history about the construction.

After finishing up at the damn we left on our last stretch towards the cable station where some cold beers awaited us.



I think we are lost




This is a Dassie, they are everywhere and believe it or not they are the closest related relatives to Elephants!

Overall the hike took us about 7hrs but we took our sweet time :D





It's well worth the experience if you have the chance!

Thanks for reading!