What can a Guide Add to your Hike?
Table Mountain National Park is unique. It is an urban national park. And it is mostly free access, barring a few locations (Boulders Beach, Cape Point, Silvermine Reserve). There are plenty of apps, maps and guidebooks available, and a litany of online resources describing various trails.
So, why should you hire a guide? Surely that’s just another scam, people who try to make money out of any situation. You can hike for free; why pay?
Or better yet, if there are people out there willing to pay to go hiking, I should jump on the bandwagon and start charging people. I know the mountain. Anyone can be a “guide”. Right?
Wrong.

Certified mountain guides will have their qualifications on their guide card
GUIDE TRAINING:
To charge people to take them hiking on any mountain in South Africa, you need to complete training that includes theoretical and practical exams, and then register with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT). The training includes soft skills such as tour creation, group management, as well as the legal and ethical requirements of guiding. The hard skills include safety on steep ground, rope work, identifying and managing hazards and risks and extensive navigation work with maps and compass. And all this just to guide day trips, on established trails.
If you’d like to become certified to do overnight and off-trail, you cover camp-craft, river crossings, night navigation and even more map reading and compass work. Once you’ve passed all the written and practical exams you submit your results, as well as your portfolio of evidence (logbooks of your hiking extensively in various locations, trails and conditions) to an external assessor. They then determine if it’s sufficient, at which point you may then register with DEDT. But only if you have also completed, at minimum, a Level 1 First Aid certification. Most mountain guides I know have Level 3.

Turning back when the weather turned within minutes
WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?
While there are definitely some seasoned hikers out there who have more experience and trail knowledge than new guides, there are some things that are covered in guide training that might not come to a hobby hiker. There are two things I’d like to focus on.
The first is that guides are trained to always put safety first. We are trained to recognize and mitigate risks. Most importantly, we are there to make the hard decisions: are the conditions safe, are my guests capable of doing this hike? We would rather turn around or find an alternative than push through. Our guests’ safety is our top priority and there is no room for egos.
MORE THAN A WALKING MAP:
The second thing that sets guides apart is their knowledge, their joy in sharing this knowledge, and their desire to constantly learn more. Guides are not just there to show you the trail. Mountain guides are also story tellers, historians, geologists, geographers, botanists, ecologists, zoologists, birders … They can tell you about medicinal or edible plants. They can point out endemic birds and flowers. They can tell you about the legends and myths of the mountain. Who is Joshua Penny? How did Devil’s Peak get its name? Why are there tahrs on the mountain? Who first climbed Table Mountain? Guides make hikes interesting and fun. We know where to find rare plants and the good photo spots (not just the Instagram famous ones). This knowledge is started in guide training but encouraged to continue afterwards.
NOT JUST FOR TOURISTS:
Anyone can buy a map or download an app. Not everyone can read them! Many people these days rely on mobile apps to help them navigate the mountains, but these come with some problems. Firstly, phone battery does not always last! There are also places where you can’t get signal. Some apps allow anyone to upload a trail and their description and rating. Not everyone is objective in this – what is comfortable for some, is beyond the limits for others.
Locals in particular are averse to hiring guides and often advise tourists they don’t need one.
In 2023, of the rescues that noted if tourist or local, 44 of the 94 rescues of hikers were local according to the Mountain Club of South Africa (MCSA). Reasons for rescues included getting lost, starting too late, deviating from plans, no/inadequate directions, weather and exceeding ability. They have a website where all incidents are recorded.

Guides know secret swimming spots
HIRE A GUIDE:
There are guides for almost every activity on the mountain – hiking, rock climbing, abseiling, mountain biking, trail running. Many guides also give locals special rates. Hiring a mountain guide is a fantastic way to explore new routes, and also to learn about Table Mountain, Cape Town history and the unique Cape Floral Kingdom in which we live. Guides are not scamming you or trying to turn the mountain into a free-for-all for making money. They know the routes intimately, recognizing where rocks are coming loose and where the best hand holds are in scrambles. They know the weather patterns and what the various clouds mean. They know when it’s very windy, where the protected trails are. They know how to describe routes accurately and objectively.
A guide always wants to be in their comfort zone on trail, while their clients are in their “adventure zone”. The moment a client feels they’ve gone further than adventure, or the guide is no longer in their comfort zone, the guide will make decisions entirely for their clients’ safety. This may mean changing the route, postponing or cancelling a hike entirely. Mountain guides live by their reputations. They live, or they go hungry.
A professional, legally certified and registered guide will provide excellent service, sound decision making and will enhance any hiking experience. They are passionate about their jobs and are some of the only people who go to their office for fun on their days off! Many guides are also either currently or formerly part of Wilderness Search and Rescue.
Will having a guide make excursions into the mountains completely risk-free? No, but it will certainly minimise and eliminate some of the contributing factors to rescues. So, please, next time you want to explore Table Mountain, do consider hiring a guide. And please don’t ever discourage others who enquire about guides from hiring one. If something were to go wrong, would you be willing to take responsibility?

Even guides hire guides: Mike Wakeford (Guided by Mike) guiding Kathy on a new route
Cape Hike and Climb owner, Kathy, has been hiking regularly since 2006, and guiding professionally since 2013. She has guided single and multi-day trips all over the Cape Peninsula, in Jonkershoek, Mont Rochelle, Mattroosberg and the Cederberg.
She has guided children and school groups on trips ranging from 3-21 days in the Western Cape and the USA since 2011.
She is a qualified Mountain Walking guide for off-trail, overnight up to 2700m; Abseil guide up to 150m, Single Pitch Sport Climbing guide. She has a Level 3 First Aid, as well as a Wilderness First Responder from the US (SOLO Medicine).