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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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TABLE MOUNTAIN, SOUTH AFRICA
At the top, there's a gift shop (of course) and a restaurant. We walked around for about an hour and a half. I kept listening for the "hooter." On the guide they gave us it says "for your own safety, when you hear the hooter, return immediately to the top station as high winds are approaching and the station will be closing down." I didn't want to get stuck on the mountain for the night! Someone's cell phone rang and I asked, "Is that the hooter?" Ha ha ha Lisa laughed and said that there wasn't even a breeze going so we aren't going to have any gusting winds come up immediately. Yea well I still kept listening for the hooter just in case.
But they aren't rodents - they are anatomically the closest living relative to the elephant. Huh? Yea it's true. They aren't afraid of humans and do bite so keep an arm's length away! |
Table Mountain's Official Web Site The cable car costs 80 Rand for a roundtrip ticket to the top of Table Mountain. The cableway was built in 1929 and the new round Rotairs have been in operation since 1997. They hold 65 people at a time and can transport 900 per hour.
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Table Mountain is sandstone which rises 1086 metres above the bay and its flat summit measures nearly 3km in length. The mountain is home to approximately 1470 species of endemic plants. Table Mountain is also known as the "Old Grey Father" of Cape Town. People say that this is because the city and the mountain are inseparable. When clouds settle over the top of the mountain, it looks as though a white table cloth has been spread over a table. 
The day we arrived in Cape Town, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The guy who picked us up from the airport said, "You should go up Table Mountain today while the weather is nice." Then when we got to Long Street Backpackers, the guy there said that we really should go to Table Mountain that day. So, off we went. We took a Rikki (cheap mini-mini bus taxi thing) to Table Mountain and bought cable car tickets. Yea we could have hiked up one of the 350 trails but well we were lazy so we took the cable car - actually called a Rotair. 
The cool thing about these cable cars is that the floors rotate giving you a 360 degree view during the ride. It takes about 6 minutes to get to the top. 
These cute guys were all over on the boulders sunbathing. They are called Rock Hyrax or Dassies and look like ground hogs. 
