The latest in a series of tented camps along the Hoerikwaggo hiking trail in the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) will open at Slangkop Point near the Kommetjie lighthouse on October 1.

This is the third such camp on the trail, which when completed, will be a six-day, five-night hike from Table Mountain to Cape Point. Camps already exist at Orangekloof in Hout Bay and Silvermine. Two more will be built at the Smitswinkel forest station at the entrance to Cape Point and at the old Signal School above Simon’s Town. TMNP hopes the full Hoerikwaggo trail will eventually become as iconic as the famous Inca Trail in Peru.

The opening of the Slangkop tented camp will enable hikers to do a fully ported and guided two-day overnight hike or to stay over in the tented camp and enjoy the hikes and beaches in and around Kommetjie.

The Slangkop section of the trail runs from Signal School to Kommetjie (12 km), an overnight at Slangkop and then hiking to Silvermine via Noordhoek Beach and Chapman’s Peak the next day (18km). The trail costs R460pp overnight, for two days with a guide and a porter. The camp can also be booked for overnight stays at R250pppn.

Like the other camps, Slangkop was built exclusively from alien vegetation removed from the surrounding mountains. The camp conforms to ‘touching the earth lightly’ values that prescribe that as little impact as possible is made on the environment.

Previously unemployed people recruited from local communities and trained by TMNP constructed the camp. The guides who accompany hikers are also previously unemployed local people trained by TMNP. The project was funded by the Department of Environment and Tourism’s Social Responsibility Programme, a government training and job-creation initiative.

For bookings call: 021 465 8515 or visit http://www.hoerikwaggotrails.co.za