By Tom · Published Oct. 28th, 2021 · Updated Nov. 24th, 2022
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The hike along Aasvoëlkrans Hiking Trail in Montagu is a short but very rewarding hike up a small ridge. There are great views of the surrounding mountains, the beautiful rocky cliffs, over the cute town of Montagu and into Cogmanskloof.
Location
The hike starts across the street from the Aasvoëlkrans B&B* in Montagu, see google maps. The town is about 2h 30min and 185 km drive from Cape Town. We camped the night before on the De Bos Guest Farm* and started hiking early in the morning. If you don’t have a car, check out the options for car hire* from Cape Town.
Aasvoëlkrans Hiking Trail Route Map
Get the route by downloading the .gpx or .kml file below. For navigation with Maps.me on your mobile phone, simply download the .kml file and open to add it to the Maps.me bookmarks.
Tips for Aasvoëlkrans Hike in Montagu
- The hike is partly in the Montagu Mountain Reserve, a proclaimed local authority nature reserve.
- A map of the reserve can be found here.
- There is no permit or fee for the Aasvoëlkrans trail, but there is for other hikes in the reserve.
- Sunhat, sunscreen and water are needed in sunny weather.
- You may skip bringing water and a backpack in the morning when it is still cool.
- The hike is well indicated, except for the last 10 m to the road.
- There is a short loop as well, but it only traverses the slope and you will miss the great views from the ridge.
- For navigation on this hike you can use for instance the offline maps app Maps.me.
- While in the area, explore more of Montagu town itself.
We hadn’t planned to hike this trail but were instead prepared to do the Bloupunt Trail to the top of the 1266 m high Bloupunt. Unfortunately the low clouds and bad weather forecast made us skip that plan. As the weather hadn’t turned yet, we went for the much shorter Aasvoëlkrans hike instead. We started hiking at 8 am some day in mid-March.
There is a sign for the Aasvoëlkrans trail across the street from the B&B. The first part of the hike is not so steep and you steadily walk up through rocky terrain. After a short while you will come across a sign indicating a long hike and short walk. The short walk already turns back here and we continued on the long hike. It gets a bit steeper there as you make your way up to the ridge.
From here the views of the town start to appear if you look back. But for the best views you need to wait till you reach the ridgeline. On the other side of the ridge, you look into Cogmanskloof and see the road and tunnel you have probably travelled through to get to Montagu.
Aasvoëlkrans
There is a great rocky cliff called Aasvoëlkrans above the ridge, with especially beautiful red colours in the early morning sunlight. When you make your way over the ridge to the other end, you have a great view of a large triangular-shaped mountain with a very rocky face, just stunning. Originally flat sandstone beds became faulted and folded and now form the vertical lines. The views of town are also very good from this vantage point.
The way down is initially steep and then follows the power line that cuts across here. After a while you turn left towards the road and not much further you will reach the road and turn right, back towards the B&B. We had some trouble finding the trail for the last 10 meters towards the road, but that wasn’t a real issue.
Altogether, the Aasvoëlkrans Hike has really great views for not so much effort, so it’s definitely one of the best hikes to do in Montagu.
While in the area, explore more of Montagu itself, or find more hiking ideas and places to explore in our South Africa Guide.
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