Highlights
- Start earlier than other groups and climb a quiet trail, never racing light
- Sit at 669 metres with tea and rusks as the sun comes up over False Bay
- Watch first light move down Table Mountain and into the waking city below you
- Make sense of Cape Town with a full 360 degree orientation from the summit
- Meet the fynbos and the Cape stories on a daylight descent with your guide
Description
Most Lion’s Head sunrise hikes leave at the last sensible moment. This one starts earlier, and that single decision shapes the whole morning.
You meet your guide at the Lion’s Head parking area on Signal Hill Road. Hotel pickup in central Cape Town can be arranged in advance for an additional charge. After a short safety briefing and a headlamp each, you set off up the jeep track in the dark. The climb is steady rather than strenuous, and because you have left early there is no need to push the pace. Nobody is racing the light. If someone in the group wants to stop and catch their breath, there is time for that.
The trail is quiet at this hour. You climb with the city glittering below you and the sky slowly losing its stars.
You reach the summit with time to settle before anything happens. Your guide pours tea and hands round rusks, and you sit at 669 metres and wait. The sun comes up behind the Hottentots Holland mountains, far across False Bay. Then you turn, and watch the first light move down Table Mountain, across the Twelve Apostles, over Robben Island and into the city bowl as Cape Town wakes up underneath you.
This is also when your guide talks you through what you are looking at, a full 360 degree orientation of the city, the peninsula and the two oceans. Most visitors spend their whole trip without ever quite working out how Cape Town fits together. Half an hour up here fixes that for the rest of your stay.
Shortly after sunrise you start down, ahead of the crowds coming up. This is deliberate, as the upper section is better descended without a queue on it.
The walk down is where the mountain opens up. In daylight your guide points out the fynbos, some of it found nowhere else on earth, reads the geology of the rock you climbed in the dark, and tells the Cape stories that go with it. You are back at the parking area with your whole day still ahead of you.
Includes
Registered local guide (Western Cape Tourist Guide)
Headlamp for the pre-dawn ascent
Tea, coffee and rusks at the summit
Safety and first aid equipment
Parking
Excludes
Hotel pickup and drop-off (available on request at extra cost)
Gratuities
Personal hiking gear
Additional food or drinks
Important Information
- The hike is rated strenuous and suited to hikers with at least intermediate fitness
Guests should bring at least 1.5 liters of water
Free cancellation is offered up to 24 hours before the start time
Easy cancellation
Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund
