Cape Town

CAPE TOWNSTARTER

Last Light on the Promenade

≈ 4,000 steps2.0 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

Three kilometres of paved seafront on the Atlantic side, walked in the last two hours of daylight. Flat, lit and busy with runners and dogs until well after dark, and it faces due west, so the whole walk ends in the sunset. Bring a windbreaker; the south-easter funnels along this shore.

CAPE TOWNSTARTER

The First Garden and Two Squares

≈ 1,600 steps0.7 mi · about 2 hoursStarter · 3 stops · 500 credStart where you live.

A flat two hours through the old town centre, from the vegetable garden the Dutch planted in 1652 to the cobbles where people were once sold. Best before ten in the morning, while the garden is quiet and the squares are still setting up.

CAPE TOWNSTANDARD

Bo-Kaap, the Gun and the Ridge

≈ 7,000 steps3.2 mi · about 4.5 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Start in the painted streets below Signal Hill, be outside the Lion Battery gate before twelve for the gun, then follow Signal Hill Road up the ridge for the long view and the start of the Lion's Head path. Half a day, and the last hour works best near sunset. The gun does not fire on Sundays or public holidays.

CAPE TOWNSTANDARD

The Parade and What Was Taken

≈ 2,500 steps1.2 mi · about 4 hoursStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Half a day on the eastern edge of the city centre, where the Castle, the Parade and District Six sit within a few streets of each other. You cover four hundred years, from a stone pentagon built for the Dutch East India Company to the balcony Mandela spoke from and the ground 60,000 people were removed from. Flat walking throughout.

CAPE TOWNSTANDARD

The Paths That Cost Nothing

≈ 3,500 steps + 1.0 mi by car1.6 mi on foot · about 5 hours · + 1 stretch not routedStandard · 5 stops · 600 credOne trip earns it.

Half a day on Table Mountain without buying a ticket. You start at the neck between Lion's Head and the mountain, take the short steep climb to Kloof Corner, stand at the foot of Platteklip Gorge, then cross to the quieter eastern slope. Carry two litres of water, do not walk alone, and turn back if the cloud comes over the edge.

CAPE TOWNADVANCED

Over the Passes

≈ 5,500 steps + 81 mi by car2.6 mi on foot · 1 day or moreAdvanced II · 9 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

Two days and a car, out of the city the way the ox wagons went. Day one runs down the False Bay coast and climbs to the top of Sir Lowry's Pass; day two crosses the winelands by Helshoogte and finishes above Franschhoek on the first properly engineered road in the country. Roughly 250 km in all. Both summits are exposed and often in cloud, so check the wind and the weather the night before.

CAPE TOWNADVANCED

The Peninsula in a Day

≈ 3,500 steps + 64 mi by car1.7 mi on foot · a full day · + the walk in to 1 stopAdvanced · 8 stops · 800 credGetting there is not the hard part.

A full day and roughly 150 km of driving, down one side of the peninsula and up the other, ending with penguins. Cape of Good Hope and Boulders charge a park conservation fee at the gate, which is what you pay to stand on the land. Chapman's Peak Drive charges a toll; Ou Kaapse Weg is the free way round. Start at first light, finish before the gates close.