Sable Ranch is near the town of Hekpoort in the Magaliesburg mountain region.

Only 80 km (1 Hour) away from Johannesburg makes this trail an easy reach for the entire family to enjoy a day out in Mother Nature.

The trail is open on weekends and public holidays and you can hike at very reasonable tariffs. Sable Ranch is easy to find and no specialized vehicles are necessary as you navigate tarred roads right until a safe and secure open parking area is reached. Sable Ranch is a brand new trail, opened in April 2018, and is still in the process of constructing public ablutions but Marilie is very happy to share private ablutions when necessary.

We arrived around 9 am on a blustery winter’s morning. A very friendly Marilie greeted us on arrival at an impressive homestead built entirely from the rocks found on the farmland. No trail maps are available yet, but Marilie will explain trails in detail and the trails are extremely well marked so there’s no fear in getting lost. We opted to do the 8 km hike, but there is also a 12 km trail available.

The first part of the trail is a beautiful stone paved road which then becomes a wide scraped trail of loose rock and sand. The trail begins with a steady uphill, around 2.5 km, which gives the calves a great workout. The rocks are pretty loose and slippery throughout the trail and one needs to keep an eye on your steps to avoid slipping and falling.
The trail evens out once you reach the Plateau. Here we were able to view the Game feeding points and we were enthralled by the amount of game we were able to watch and photograph in close proximity, so beautiful and special! There are hides you can watch from, but we found them unnecessary as the game was obviously used to been observed. We were fortunate to see Peglerae Aloes, which are indigenous to the Magalies area, in full bloom. 

The picnic area is a beautiful shady spot with fresh, running mountain water to refill bottles aswell as a braai and seating area. After stopping to rest we took the Dam trail and then hiked the the Sable Road. A hefty incline almost had me 4x4’ing up the hill. The trail then wanders back down to the starting point