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| Don at the top of Table Mountain after our climb |
We arrived in Cape Town from Namibia
after a ghastly flight. Air Namibia was
great, but we were seated right behind a family of 5 children and disconnected
parents. So the 2 youngest (about 2 and
4) screeched and howled and screamed the entire 2 hours of the flight. Their parents paid no attention, but you can
bet the rest of us on the plane did! So,
we were ready to do something much more enticing when we arrived in South Africa.
With Don navigating, we managed to
drive to the Table Mountain cable car, packed with people and cars. Not a problem since we had decided to climb
up anyway. It's a 2000 foot climb, up a
very steep gorge via very uneven rock steps.
Fortunately, there are some switchbacks along the way to provide a
breather, but the steps are quite high, so our knees and thighs protested
mightily for a couple of days after our climb.
It took us an hour and 45 minutes to the top and an hour and 15 minutes
back down again. We were quite pleased
with ourselves as a lot of 20 somethings were climbing also and couldn't keep
up with us.
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| Table Bay from atop Table Mountain |
The views are spectacular all the
way up. About halfway, the gorge gets
very narrow and even steeper, so you're climbing right along a huge cliff that
offers welcome shade. From the top of
Table Mountain, you get unbelievable views of Cape Town, the Cape of Good Hope,
and all the mountains and towns on both sides of the Cape. Happily for us, who had started out very
unprepared, there is a nice little cafe at the top with lots of remarkably good
food and rapid checkout. So we sat
outside enjoying the views from on high and fighting off the inevitable birds,
these with gray hoods that looked like Muslim headscarves, deep black bodies
and orange feathers under their wings.
Voracious and beautiful.
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| view along the Cape from Table Mountain |
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