Lion's Head...better than Table Mountain? | Cape Town, South Africa

#LionsHead #CapeTown #SouthAfrica

Splitting downtown Cape Town and Camps Bay lies Lion's Head, a 699m in the Table Mountain National Park.

Compared to the Platteklip Gorge route up Table Mountain, the hike up Lion's Head is both shorter, more varied and in my opinion, better!

You start off on the road up to Signal Hill, with a gentle gradient and gravel path that leads you around the base of Lion's Head. You get some great views of Camps Bay, Clifton and Sea Point.

Around halfway up the climb starts to become more rocky and be warned, there is a T junction of sorts......take the left hand turn. We took the right hand turn which led us around anti-clockwise along a thin and somewhat treacherous path. We ended up having to turn around and walk the normal route.

As you progress up the slopes there is another junction where you can either take the 'recommended route' or a route with ladders and chains, which you take at your own risk. We took the route with "The Chains" and would recommend it as long you are not scared of heights, it adds more variety to the climb.

The final stage is along the ridge line which is a sort of scramble to the peak of Lion's Head. You get incredible views of Cape Town and Table Mountain.

Finally, at the top you can just relax. It takes between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours to get the top and just like Table Mountain, you should take a jacket in case the wind picks up. There's also a number of rocky outcrops that make for some incredible photos looking over Cape Town.

There isn't a cable car down so it can be a little harsh on the knees, but if you take your time you'll be fine.

Lion's Head is also really popular to climb on full moons - there is a Facebook Group which might be worth checking out if that's your thing:   / lionsheadfullmoonhikes  

In terms of whether climbing Lion's Head is better than Table Mountain - I believe so. However, that's only comparing it to the Platteklip Gorge route and not, for instance, the Skeleton Gorge route. The fact that you circle around Lion's Head as you climb up means that the views are constantly changing. Plus, the hiking itself is more varied with a decent amount of it being scrambling over rocks.

0:00 - Intro
1:01 - Views over Camps Bay
1:28 - Wrong route up Lion's Head
4:30 - Recommended Route vs "The Chains"
6:26 - Lion's Head Ridge
7:24 - Peak of Lion's Head
9:44 - The way down
12:23 - Climbing Lion's Head for Sunset or Full Moon