Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you see it, now you don’t. It’s magic!

Well,  okay, it actually has to do with weather conditions but Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa  literally can, and does, disappear into the clouds. It happens quickly (within a few hours) and is seemingly unpredictable. Locals ask “Have you been up Table Mountain yet?” and then proceed to advise you that if there is ever a break in the clouds get to the mountain immediately as you have no idea how long it will last. (We visited in late April.)

Therefore one morning when it seemed that the clouds might be clearing we altered our plans and headed to Table Mountain on the hop-on hop-off bus. When we had been there the day before  very few people were around as the mountain was clouded in. Today cars galore are parked along the road leading up to the cableway station and people are trekking great distances to the ticket office. Our bus stops right in front of the ticket office…a huge plus.

The queues for tickets to ride the cable cars (cableway) are long but everything moves relatively quickly. We paid R195 per person for a return adult ticket in 2012. (Use the currency converter in the Tools section of this website to calculate how much that is in your local currency. You do not have to click on the green Buy Now button to get this information.)

Several wide (easy to climb)  steps lead you to elevators that  whisk you up to one of two large “holding pens” where passengers wait for the next cable car.

You know how everyone wants to be next to the window so they have the best view. Predictably everyone semi-politely pushed their way in to get the best possible spot. Then something rather unexpected happened. The attendant asked everyone who was next to the glass not to lean on it as…get this…the platform of the car was going to slowly rotate as we traveled to the top. And slowly rotate it did so everyone was able to get a good view of the entire landscape.

Aside: In December, 2012 Table Mountain was officially named as one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World (as voted on my internet users).

HINT: We spotted a few people hiking up the mountain. I strongly advise that you research this option carefully if you are considering doing this.

Read more about a visit to Table Mountain by going to my other blogs On Top of Table Mountain, Walking up Table Mountain…A Caution, and Getting to Table Mountain.

To visit more of Cape Town and South Africa, click here.

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Happy travels!