Kirstenbosch & Lions Head

​Good morning folks! Another beautiful day today in Cape town and on the list to cool things to do in Cape town today was Kirstenbosch and Lions head. Acclaimed as one of the great botanic gardens of the world, we felt that we had to add Kirstenbosch to our Cape town adventure.
Only 20 minutes from our house and nestled against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain is this stunning Botanic Garden with many many walking paths, café’s, 1 restaurant, various trails to Table Mountain and some of most picturesque picnic spots I have ever seen.

It costs 75ZAR to enter, which is about $8NZD pp and it’s worth it. We hiked some of the Skeleton gorge, got caught in 2 different rain storms (I blame being so close to the beautiful mountain equipped with its own weather system), checked out some African wildflowers and managed to not step on any snakes. Overall, we spent just over 2 hours here, but we loved it. It’s beautiful and a great place to bring family or friends to have an all-day picnic basking in the sun…or in our case skipping from 1 shaded area to the next hiding from both the intense Cape sun and the rain.
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Cape Town is fast becoming one of my favourite cities in the world, in part of due to the hundreds of spectacular hikes you can do while you’re here. Every day we look out of our window and are blessed with the views of Lion’s head. The city has been blessed with an abundance of climbable mountains and this one is considered one of the most stunning views of the city. It was next on our days list of adventures.

The five-kilometre hike climbs 500 metres as it encircles Lions Head, which meant that half of our walk was in the scorching Cape Town heat and the other half was shaded- that to me is a win. Caked in sunscreen we began the hike. In beginning, at least, the path was wide, smooth, and flat and then became hot and challenging about 15 minutes in. 

From the moment we started walking, the views were spectacular. I was obviously on edge as my face is in the stage of half peeling off just now and the thought of it burning again makes me want to spew but I tried to stay as positive as possible and it wasn’t hard at all. The sweat was pouring off us both as we practically ran up enjoying every second. We even chose the ‘hard’ way up which included vertical sections of chains and staples – I loved it.
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We would both recommend if you are fit enough to add the challenging route into your climb on the way up for a kick of adrenaline and then on the way down do the easy route as then you get a good mix of views. Now, the summit was in sight and I could taste the victory, 43 minutes in and BOOM! We made it. WHAT.A.SIGHT. Panoramic views over the whole city and Table Mountain, we just sat in awe for at least 20 minutes, before snapping all the best pics and making our descent back home.
I am so happy we ticked this off the list. We have 1 days left here which means that tomorrow we tackle Table Mountain, I’m sick of writing this every day so I can only imagine you are sick of reading it, but tomorrow it is the day and it’ happening. 

​**Very quick add on – If you are planning on eating out in Camps Bay we can recommend 100% Paranga! After 18,000 steps today and 14km’s we treated ourselves and my god it was worth it. A bit pricey but for the setting, the outstanding food and the great service – we would be back!