Peglarae Trail Kgaswane

By Vicky · Published Dec. 5th, 2025 · Updated Dec. 17th, 2025

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The Peglarae Trail in Kgawsane Nature Reserve is an easy yet beautiful hike in the Magaliesberg Mountains.

Peglarae Trail Kgaswane Hike Map

Location

The Peglarae Trail starts from the Kgaswane Nature Reserve Visitor Centre, in the middle of the reserve. It’s 1hr40 from Pretoria, and 2hr30 from Johannesburg. To enter the reserve, you have to pay for a permit at the gate on Helen Joseph Drive. Note that Google might suggest a different route, but you can’t actually go this way. Permit fees for Kgaswane Nature Reserve are R50/25 per adult/child and R20 per vehicle.

Tips

Don’t forget a sunhat and plenty of water. The weather can change quickly, especially in summer when thunderstorms suddenly appear, so take a rain jacket.
Bring binoculars as there are antelopes and lots of birds within the Nature Reserve.
Kgaswane Nature Reserve opens at 6am. It closes at 6pm in winter and 7pm in summer.
Useful for many hikes, get an offline hiking App such as Organic Maps.
There’s a campsite with 22 spots in the reserve if you want to stay overnight.
For other hikes in the Magaliesberg, check out the Milorho Lodge Hiking Trail or the Kumbagana Game Reserve Hike. Find even more hikes in our South Africa Hiking Guide.

Peglarae Trail Kgaswane Hiking Route

From the Visitor Centre, head out along the track opposite towards the hills. Take the first track to the right, which starts going gently upwards. After almost 200 metres, the Peglarae Trail leads off to the left.

The hiking path is quite clear and there aren’t any choices of ways, so route finding is fairly easy. The landscape is very beautiful, as you wind your way through interesting rock formations. There are also great views over the central valley of Kgaswane Nature Reserve, and you can also see down to Rustenburg on the other side.

The trail is slightly steep and rocky in places, but there is never any technical difficulty. You gradually climb higher and higher among the rock-strewn hills, before you reach the highest point roughly halfway around. From there, it’s almost all downhill.

When you’re almost back, you’ll reach the valley floor. The hiking trail crosses straight over a vehicle track, then continues back to the Visitor Centre. This is the end of the Peglarae Trail Hike in Kgaswane Nature Reserve.