Table Mountain and Cape of Good Hope Sept 16 Tuesday

On Tuesday, we woke to beautiful sunny weather and took our trip up Table Mountain in a gondola. In Cape Town, you have to strike when the proverbial iron is hot. Since it is still very late winter here, the weather can vary a great deal. Table Mountain is Cape Town’s most iconic landmark, and it, along with the harbor, creates a stunning bowl that the city is situated in. The gondola was built in and opened in 1929. The current cars, installed in 1997, carry 65 people each in a 5 minute ride to the top of Table Mountain at an elevation of 3501 feet. The highest point on Table Mountain is 3558 feet. From the city center where our hotel was located, the cars were barely visible to the naked eye and it looks like a harrowing ride to the top, but it was fun. The internal floor of the cars rotate, so no matter where you are in the car, you still get to see the views on the way up and down. The views from the top are spectacular and this is not to be missed on a trip to Cape Town. I think Steve would have rather kept his feet on the ground, but he was a good sport and enjoyed it. For the last few feet on the way up, it looks like you are going to smash into the side of the mountain. I kept saying “pull up!” and he was not amused. Perspective is everything. Even though the weather is sunny and 65 deg F on the ground, it was, dare I say, cold at the top. Layers are your friend here.

View of the harbor from Table Mountain

After Table Mountain, we began our leisurely drive down the west side of the Cape of Good Hope to the southwesternmost (is that an actual word?) point on the African continent. They are really capitalizing on this. It’s not the southernmost point, and not the westernmost point on the continent, but southwesternmost point, and there was a line for a photograph at the famous sign. Luckily, our fabulous guide, Juan, just shooed people away, situated us right in the middle of the sign, and snapped all the photos. It was almost like he had done this before. The Cape of Good Hope was renamed by the Portuguese from the Cape of Storms (also named by the Portuguese in 1487, and not too inviting, huh?) due to such optimism being generated by the opening of this new see route from Europe to India. That’s a long ass way around Robin’s barn to trade some spices if you ask me. Why didn’t they just go ahead and build the Suez Canal like 350 years earlier?

“Southwesternmost” Point

We continued our drive up the eastern side of the cape, and had lunch at Fran’s, a locally famous restaurant with delicious authentic African food, in Simon’s Town. Simon’s Town is known for being the home of South Africa’s largest Naval Base, and is full of quaint shops and restaurants. We had time for a stroll after lunch, so a few folks did some shopping and had an ice cream, and we found a little coffee shop (we never pass up a good coffee shop). We finally stopped to see the African penguins at Boulders Beach. I must admit I did not know there were penguins native to South Africa. They are cute little boogers who mate for life and bray like a donkey, giving them the name Jack Ass penguins. We heard it, and the sound is remarkably difficult to distinguish from an actual donkey.

Since we had lunch so late today, we opted to skip dinner and go to bed early. It felt nice to take little break and relax in our room for a bit. We have been on the go for over two weeks, and it caught up with me today.