I have been wanting to sneak up Nursery Buttress for ages — it just looks like a lot of fun! So I shouldn’t have been surprised when it turned out into quite a little adventure…
Getting there: park your car at Rycroft Gate (the upper Kirstenbosch gate)
GPS Co-ordinates: S 33°59.543′, E 018°25.859′
Difficulty: difficult to follow, steep, scrambling required
I am not going to try to go into too much detail on this one other than to describe the way to the start of the route — perhaps I will take some notes next time I go up and update this post. You can get decent route descriptions complete with photographs in both Adventure Walks and Scrambles in the Cape Peninsula by Karen Watkins and Table Mountain Classics by Tony Lourens.
Standing inside Rycroft Gate looking straight up the road at the mountain, the dominant buttress directly in front of you is Nursery Buttress, and the green, forested ravine on the left is Nursery Ravine.
Head straight up the paved road, following the signs pointing to the Contour Path and Nursery Ravine. The paved road reaches an intersection with a set of stairs leading up the opposite side. The sign-post points right to the Contour Path and Skeleton Gorge — you will only see the sign to Nursery Ravine once you pass the sign-post.
The stairs cross one paved road before topping out at the Contour Path [S 33°59.282′, E 018°25.313′, 305m]. This should take less than 20 minutes. Turn right onto the Contour Path and walk for less than 100 meters before you reach the sign-posted Nursery Ravine. Now continue along the path around the base of the buttress until you reach the next small ravine which is really just a rock watercourse. Your route starts by walking up the giant rock steps. Shortly after this, the path leaves the water-course on the left, and from here you need to diligently follow the cairns.
Unfortunately from time to time at places where you need to head up the rock on a scramble, the path actually continues past where you must start ascending. Sometimes it helps to inspect the rock for signs of climbing — lookout for signs like exposed, worn routes, broken branches, and where lichen has been rubbed off the rock by passing feet.
You definitely need to be comfortable with a bit of scrambling for this route, and unless you go with someone who knows the way, you need to be willing to do a bit of scouting from time to time as I did.
You pop out onto Smut’s Track: take a left down the stairs which will soon bring you to the top of Nursery Ravine which is the quickest way back down.