Kalk Bay Peak and Spes Bona from Ou Kraal

This circular trail begins at Ou Kraal on Boyes Drive, making its way towards Bailey’s Kloof before ascending through the Mimetes Valley. After taking a left turn toward Kalk Bay, the route passes Kalk Bay Peak before descending through the Spes Bona Forest, to return to Ou Kraal via the Old Mule Path.

Meeting Point: Ou Kraal at start of Old Mule Trail on Boyes Drive, St James. 

Meeting Spot: Google Maps Location 

Hiking Time: 3hrs 30min

Distance: 6.9km

Elevation: 447m

Grade: Moderately Strenuous

🐶 Dog friendly 

Route Notes: An easy to follow but relatively long hike on a stony path.

Hiking Map: Kalk Bay Peak AllTrail Hiking Map or download the GPX Route

The Spes Bona Forest

This small area of forest is one of over a hundred and twenty patches of Afrotemperate Forests in the Cape Peninsula. Except in the Newlands, Kirstenbosch and Orange Kloof areas, these are small forest patches which occur mostly in sheltered rocky slopes and mountain gorges, where moisture is high and the land is protected from fire.

Common trees of the Peninsula’s Western Cape Afrotemperate Forests include Podocarpus latifolius (Real Yellowwood), Cunonia capensis (Rooiels), Olinia ventosa (Hard-Pear), Rapanea melanophloeos (Cape Beech) and Cassine peragua (Cape Saffron).

The Afrotemporate Forest is a subtype of the Afromontane Forest Group, which also includes the Cape Milkwood Forests. Despite frequent fynbos fires in the region, aerial photos of the Cape Peninsula showed a 65.3% increase in forest cover from 1944 to 2008. 

The Afrotemperate Forests grew by 51.2%, with the number of patches rising from 107 to 127. Cape Milkwood Forests grew even faster, by 81.4%, with five new patches forming. (Ref: Zoë Poulsen, Changes in Distribution of Indigenous Forest in Table Mountain National Park from 1880 - 2012)

The Spes Bona Forest Path