To the Disas - via Kasteelspoort

Start at the SANParks path on Theresa Avenue, Camps Bay. Click here for a Google Map of the path.

Follow the path up to the Pipe Track and take the Kasteelspoort ascent all the way up (point A on the map). [For a larger PDF version of the above annotated Slingsby Map, click here.]

From here follow the path to the Waterworks Museum at the foot of Hely Hutchinson Dam. Directly opposite the little museum is a path heading north-east up the valley between St Michaels and Junction Peaks. Walk all the way up until you reach the Aquaduct (point B on the map).

After admiring the Red Disas,

and the rare Amphithalea imbricata (above) at the little bridge at the start of the Aquaduct – point B on the map), turn back and retrace your steps till you get to a waterfall on your right (point C on the map).

Head up the valley between St Michaels and Orion Peaks where you can pick up a faint path on the left of the disa-lined stream.

Follow the path as it winds along the stream and you eventually come out at a junction near a little bridge

and a signpost (point D on the map) saying Echo Valley.

 

Follow the Echo Valley path to the next junction (Point E on the map), then go through the Valley of the Red Gods back to the start of the Kasteelspoort descent. (Point A on the map).

Retrace your steps back to Theresa Ave.

NB: The Red Disas flower from the middle of January till the middle of March.
Once again, I am indebted to Peter Slingsby for his great maps. Click here to purchase your own.

Time: 5 hours if reasonably fit.

 GPS points:

Start at Theresa Ave track -33.963255, 18.384411
Start of Kasteelpoort path from Pipe Track -33.964910, 18.389336
A -33.972284, 18.394586
Waterworks Museum Path -33.974692, 18.407725
B -33.972943, 18.416990
C  -33.972087, 18.414638
D -33.969465, 18.411788
E -33.968949, 18.410816

Blue Disa (Disa graminifolia) in Echo Valley. Flowering time is February.

Up Kasteels to the Cablecar via Valley of the Red Gods

Meet at the Theresa Avenue gate onto the mountain, Camps Bay.

About 4-5 hours.

Bring money for the cable car ticket - and a Wildcard if you want the discount.

Some notes on the old cableway in Kasteelspoort taken from the book The Table Mountain Book by Jose Burman .

This cablecar was built in 1893 to haul supplies up the Table Mountain during the construction of the dams on top. The horizontal line of the cableway was 1600 m, and it rose to a vertical height of 700 m.

Then. And now - 118 years later. Burman says: "On the summit edge of Postern Buttress they set up the cable gear, though the engine was at the foot of the cableway. The cable car was an open skip, on which passengers crouched amidst the equipment. It must have been a hair-raising trip, for in 14 spans in climbed a vertical height of 700 metres, the last span being 450 metres in length."