Rhodes Ramble: Rhodes Memorial and surrounds

(8 reviews)

Cape Town audio tour: Rhodes Ramble: Rhodes Memorial and surrounds

This is a 2.1mi walking tour

It takes an average of 60 mins to complete.

Cape Town

South Africa

$1.99

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About the Tour

Set in one of the most stunning locations in Cape Town, this scenic tour combines fascinating facts about the human and natural history of Rhodes Memorial and the surrounding foothills of Devil’s Peak. This tour was created by students at Cedar House Prep School, as part of their school curriculum. Expect interesting insights into the life and legacy of the famous and controversial mining magnate, beautiful local plants and flowers, as well as spectacular views of the city, the mountain and the sea.

After a thorough look at the imposing memorial, your route takes you just a bit of the way up the slopes of Devil’s Peak before winding its way along the mountainside on a gentle, downward track. On the return leg of this circular hike, you will get up close and personal with the wonderful indigenous Fynbos vegetation as a narrow footpath leads you back to the Memorial via a series of rolling hills.

Tour Producer

Cedar House Prep School

1 tour

We are a group of Grade 6 and 7 students from Cedar House Prep School in Kenilworth, Cape Town. Our names are Hannah, Diadone, Mia, Paul, Keitu, Bay, Tom, Grace, Ella, Ben, Jenna-Mea, Matthew, Luca, Niamh, Maria, Kyran, Amrev, Sam, Joshua, Finn, Sebastian, Ella, Jamie, Daniel, Caitlin and Sino.

In a semester-long elective module called “Explore: Places Tell Stories”, we created VoiceMap audio tours in Cape Town with our teachers Hazel and Andreas. Along the way we learned things about the human and natural history of our hometown, the science of sound, oral history and technology.

We had loads of fun creating the tours and we hope you have fun experiencing them.

Preview Location

Location 10

How Devil's Peak got its name

Walking along the foothills of Devil’s Peak, the jagged mountain that towers above you to the left, you may wonder how it got its name.

There is a rather colourful local legend about that which we really enjoy. A long, long time ago, the story goes, a Dutch pirate retired f... Walking along the foothills of Devil’s Peak, the jagged mountain that towers above you to the left, you may wonder how it got its name.

There is a rather colourful local legend about that which we really enjoy. A long, long time ago, the story goes, a Dutch pirate retired from his seafaring days by settling down in the Cape. His name was Jan van Hunks and he lived at the foot of the mountain with his wife.

Van Hunks loved to smoke his pipe, but his wife, who was much less enamoured with this habit, forced him to leave their house whenever he was doing so. One day, while sitting on the side of the mountain enjoying the view and his pipe, he met a mysterious man in black who wore a black hat that covered his face.

The stranger was a fellow smoker and soon the two fell into a conversation about their hobby, with each man bragging to the other about their capacity to smoke.

Naturally, the argument led to a pipe-smoking contest – perhaps the most famous in history.

After much huffing and puffing, the competition ended with van Hunks as the winner and the whole of Table Mountain covered in a massive cloud of smoke – the famous table cloth.

The dark stranger was, of course, the devil himself and while he lost the smoke-off with the old Dutch pirate he gave the pointy mountain above you its name.

This story was first told by British poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1909 and although we find it quite amusing, it’s not actually the real source of the name Devil’s Peak.

The beautiful meteorological phenomenon that is Table Mountain’s table cloth, created as banks of cloud tumble over the mountain’s edge like billowing fabric, is sometimes referred to as ‘Kaggen’s Karos’, after a tale told by the Cape’s original human inhabitants, the San hunter gatherers.

According to their legend, the mantis god Kaggen, conjures up the cloudy table cloth every time he pulls a white animal pelt, or karos, from his cave to quench fires on the mountain slopes.

In the past, Devil's Peak was also known as Windberg or Charles Mountain. The Dutch may have called it Duifespiek or ‘Dove's Peak’, a name that may have been mistranslated by the English as Devil’s Peak.

Yet another theory has it that the name dates back all the way to a Venetian cartographer named Fra Mauro who, in the 1500s, drew a map on which he designated the southern tip of Africa as Cabo di Diab – the Devil's Cape. This name may later have been bestowed on the mountain that you are now walking beneath.

Whatever the real origins of its name may be, Devil’s Peak has clearly had a very colourful history. Read More

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Major Landmarks

the King’s Blockhouse

Getting There

Route Overview

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Start location
Rhodes Memorial St, Table Mountain (Nature Reserve), Cape Town, South Africa
Total distance

3km
Final location
Rhodes Ave, Devil's Peak, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa
Distance back to start location

68.73m

Directions to Starting Point

The starting point to this tour is located at the edge of a parking lot on the entrance to the bottom of Rhodes Memorial.

Rhodes Memorial is not served by public transport and while it can be reached on foot from the Rondebosch train station on the Cape Town to Simon’s Town railway line or from any public bus stop on Main Road in Rondebosch, this requires a long and steep uphill walk. The Memorial is easily accessible via private car or taxi.

Follow the signs to Rhodes Memorial from the M3 highway. The road will lead you into the Table Mountain National Park through an entrance gate and to the Memorial itself. As the road approaches the Memorial, the starting point of the tour is on a small parking lot to the right of the road near the foot of the Memorial. Look for a chest-high stone wall on the lower (far right) side of which there is an opening through which you can walk to the bottom of the Monument. There is a green sign with the words ‘Rhodes Memorial’ on the other side of the wall. The starting point of the tour is on this side of the wall on the edge of the parking lot.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

As you walk, make sure to take regular breaks to catch your breath, have a drink of water and enjoy the views. There is no rush – walk at your own pace. We highly recommend that you visit the Rhodes Memorial Restaurant, located immediately above the Memorial, once you have completed the tour.

Best time of day

Mid-morning to mid-afternoon. The entrance gate to Rhodes Memorial is open to car traffic during the following hours:
Summer (1 October to 31 May): 7:30 to 19:00
Winter (1 June to 30 September): 8:00 to 18:00

Precautions

We highly recommend that you do not do this tour on your own, but instead go in a small group, as parts of the route are fairly remote. Make sure that you are wearing sturdy walking shoes, weather-appropriate clothing and a hat. Apply sunscreen and take along a bottle of water and portable snacks – once you are on the main section of the tour, there is no readily-accessible source of drinking water. While anyone with a reasonable level of physical fitness should be able to do this hike, if the thought of several uphill stretches and walking through somewhat bushy vegetation is not appealing, this tour may not be for you. Don’t rush, walk at your own pace and take regular breaks to catch your breath and take in the views. On the return section of the walk, you will be on a very narrow footpath, just wide enough for a single person. This path may be somewhat overgrown, in places, but it is there. The important bit to remember is that you will never cross the fence that this path is next to. Always keep the fence to your immediate left.

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Questions and Reviews

4.8 / 5

8 Ratings

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