Table Mountain

Table Mountain is a defining feature of Cape Town.  It affects the city's weather and it dictates the shape of the city itself.  Cape Town is squeezed between the sea and the mountain so it's a long narrow city and the mountain irresistibly draws ones eyes to it.

Table Mountain towering a bit over a kilometer over Cape Town.  To the left is Devil's Peak.

There are many hiking paths that take hikers to the top of the mountain.  The day before I went several of my young shipmates hiked up to look around.  I did a quick survey of them the following morning and they all were feeling it in their legs.  I took this as a sign that I might be too old to hike up (I was really looking for a sign) so I took the tram up.

This is the lower tram station.  If you look closely you can see the highest point up there along the mountain top, that tiny little spec is the upper tram station.  The lower station is about 360 meters above sea level and the upper station is about 1060 meters above sea level.

I zoomed in a bit so you can see the upper station better.  If you look about half way between stations you can see on of the gondolas, just below and right of center of this picture.  The gondolas hold about 35 people, if I remember correctly, and the floor rotates a full 360° during the 4 minute ride to the top.  They moved fast and my legs were not that tired when we got up there, although I did have to wait in line for about 45 minutes to buy my ticket for the tram.

Some detailed information about the mountain.

The view that awaits at the top.  The handsome guy with the beard isn't always there the the view is pretty much the same otherwise.  (Note the combed hair!)  The hill on the left is Signal Hill and outside of the shot further left is Lion's Head.  The waterfront is along the right half of the picture and Picton Castle is tied to the wall in the smaller section on the left of the waterfront.

Here is the top station looking down at the lower station.  The high point of rock is Lion's Head, with Signal Hill to the right.  There are trails leading up to the top of Lion's Head but no tram, so I haven't been up there.  The small island above Signal Hill is Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.

This is pretty representative of what the landscape looks like on top of the mountain.  Evidently, ages ago, this was all under water and then Table Mountain was an island.  The rock is pretty smooth and rounded with lots of rounded out hollows that look like tide pools.  Winter brings a lot of rain in South Africa and you can see the effects on the mountain.  They have done an excellent job incorporating trails that go all the say around the top of the mountain without disturbing the natural scene and it is kept very clean.  There were quite a few people up there when I was there but it wasn't over crowded.  There is a lot of room to spread out and it took about 3 hours to walk casually around the entire top of the mountain.

Looking South toward Devil's Peak.  The trails lead here as well but I didn't make the trek over there.  When the Southeaster blows clouds form, first on top of Devil's Peak and then over the length of Table Mountain.  They can blow in quickly and it looks awesome from the ground when it happens but I don't have a picture of it yet.

I zoomed in on the waterfront to see if I could see the ship and, sure enough, she's there.  The large building in the upper center is a super nice hotel and the ship is just to the right of the hotel.  The big white crane is covering the bowsprit but you can see her.  In the water right in front of the hotel are a couple of really big yachts.  All the roofs you can see to the left of the hotel is a huge mall with over 400 shops and 85 restaurants.  The entire waterfront has been reclaimed and is full of shops and museums.  It's really lovely and always very busy.

Lovely flowers growing in crevices between the rocks.

Saw a lot of these little guys up there as well.

These little guys are Rock Hyraxes, called Rock Dasie here.  There was a whole family of them just a few feet off the path.  They look like the adults weigh in at about 15-20 lbs but you can do your own research here.  Their closest relative in the animal kingdom is the Elephant...really, check the link.

This is what the terrain looked like right on the other side of the rock where the Dasie family was sunning.  They were pretty sure footed, scampering all over the rocks like it was nothing.

A little farther down the path someone had set a cup down so they could take a picture.  This guy saw it and decided he should investigate.  He came up on the path just a few feet in front of us.  The person picked up the cup before the Dasie got there so he climbed up a rock right next to the path and let us take some close-ups.  He drew quite a crowd and started to get a bit nervous so he scampered away.

Moving on toward Devil's Peak.  From the ground and even from the top it looks like there is a saddle between Table Mountain and Devil's Peak but, when you get closer you see there is a gorge between them.  This is looking into the gorge toward the city.  We also saw a lot of these little peach Lilly type flowers.

This is looking the other way toward what would be the back of the mountain.  I couldn't look straight down to the path in the other picture but this gorge is the main hiking trail to the top.  As you can see, there is a long stair and if you turn left you go to Devil's Peak and right leads to the top of Table Mountain.  What looks like a row of mountain tops leading into the distance is called the 12 Apostles (there are actually 17 of them) and then the Atlantic Ocean.

This picture was taken opposite the upper tram station, looking off the back of the mountain along the 12 Apostles.  This whole area is the Table Mountain National Park and is covered with hiking trails.  The views are spectacular with ocean views all almost all the way around Cape Point.

Table Mountain was amazing and one of the highlights of visiting Cape Town.  I highly recommend it be added to your bucket list.  It was recently voted as one of the new 7 wonders of the world and I can't argue with that.

So, I'm running a few days behind with my blogging.  Today I actually just got back from a 2 day safari inland a ways.  Check back soon and I'll tell you all about it!