Table Mountain
After admiring Table Mountain from a number of different perspectives throughout the week; today we climbed it.
Instead of taking the “tourist route” we followed the pipeline track then headed up the steep Woody Ravine route. This was indeed both steep and woody but luckily wasn’t too long. In 2 hours we were on the plateau but this is probably only about half way to the top (cable car station).
We plodded along the well made track up and down a few steep sections where there are even a couple of fixed metal ladders to climb. We soon could see the cable car station in the distance surrounded by hoards of people. Even though the top was busy there are splendid views over the city and Olly could point out all the places and beaches we have visited this week. Its such a small flat city that Olly could even point out the tower block he used to live at the top of. After admiring the view we purchased one way “hiker” tickets for the cable car down.
They fit a surprising amount of tourists in each car and the floor of the car rotates during the trip down so you get a 360 degree view. Lucky for me a very tall man next to the window let me swap spaces with him. The floor spinning was quite unnerving as you can’t hold onto the window bars. The door blew open an inch in the wind which was doubly unnerving.
Safely back on the ground we returned to the car and headed back to do some packing before dinner. We decided to go to an Italian place that we had walked past earlier in the week which seemed busy. However we ended up being the only customers, they also didn’t have menus but the waitress carried in the poster sized menu boards from outside for us to choose from...
Cape Town would not exist without Table Mountain. The original Khoi name for Cape Town was “Camissa” meaning “Place of Sweet Waters”. The mountain provides a rain shadow, this means the slopes are covered with vegetation, in turn producing fertile soils which attracted human settlers.
Table Mountain consists of mudstone with a sand stone top layer, this was originally at sea level and the flat table top was produced by moving ice sheets. The whole mountain was later uplifted during a period of tectonic activity. The mountain contains a large aquifer which is replenished by rainfall, but also by moisture precipitated from the clouds which often cover the mountain, locally referred to as the “table cloth”.
