Newlands Forest

The sound of crunching leaves and tweeting birds and that beautiful forest smell…Newlands Forest is a perfect place for a walk, a hike, a run and all those nature lovers. Newlands Forest is located on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain in-between Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden and the University of Cape Town (UCT Upper Campus).

Upon arriving in the carpark you can head straight up the path and there is a small map showing the trails. I felt like there was little helpful direction for no regular forest goers, with a pretty useless map to guide you. You can see it below. I was alone, and knew that there were at least four hikes that go up Table Mountain so I didn’t want to be committing to a longer hike than I was prepared for. I just felt that there could have been more signage on the routes to indicate where exactly you were heading. But generally speaking the lower paths were easy to navigate and it was quite fun to take random paths and explore what they had to offer. I would suggest taking the loop route that you can see on the map below. There is even a route that takes you to Kirstenbosch where there are more walks to explore!