Cape Town, Day 2

 Day 2, Cape Town, April 11,2025

View of Table Mountain with Devil's Peak
on the right and Lion's Head on the left.
Taken from Bloubergstrand, 15km distant
Photo credit: Wikipedia

No trip to Cape Town is complete without a visit to the top of Table Mountain.  It is obvious why it is named that way as it looks flat as a pancake from below.   It stands about 3,500 feet above sea level.  It can be seen anywhere from the city and is flanked by Devel’s Peak to the east and Lions Head to the west. 

We get a little better look at the city itself as we make our way to the aerial cableway which will give us our 5 minute cable car ride to the top.  Cape Town is a much cleaner city than Durban.  No garbage piled up around here and the buildings and shops are in much better shape.

Street scene

  I can see why people want to migrate here from less desirable areas.  Our guide says they are not without crime, and we do see a lot of property protected by concertina wire and security cameras.  

We arrive at the base of the cableway and our guide is ecstatic that the line to get in is much smaller than when she was here yesterday.  The day before that was too windy and the cableway was shut down.  Waits in the queue yesterday were well over an hour she said.  Our time today is limited as we have to be all aboard by 2PM.   

Our destination!

President Nelson Mandella proclaimed Table Mountain and Cape Peninsula National Park in 1998 and said it was this nation’s “Gift to the Earth”.

There are two cars coming and going which are timed to pass each other halfway.  They hold 65 passengers, and the floor does a 360 going up and down to give everyone an all-around view.  We only wait about 20 minutes for our group to be loaded and off we go for the 5-minute ride to the top.  The views are pretty spectacular, even though I am not standing in the front row. 

You can also hike up to the top.  There are several trails, the shortest of which can be done in one to one and a half hours.

View from cable car

We are allowed nearly two hours to roam around, and it would take that long to circumvent the plateau but we try to see as much as we can in the time allotted.  The surface is of course not tabletop smooth but very rocky with vegetation of small brush, flowering bushes and plants along with an occasional gecko.  There are pathways which have been made easier to negotiate with the use of cement filling in spaces between the rocks. 

Sue on "path"

Some of the popular viewing spots have railings or stone walls.  There were also some extended platforms that put you out over the edge.  There were plenty of places that had no barriers whatsoever and parents had to be very vigilant with their children. 

Don't stumble!

Selfie with Cape Town down below

A good video of the mountain and cable cars can be found here. Professional 3-minute video

Video from on top: Table Mtn video (2)

Devil's Peak from Table Mtn:  Devil's Peak

Camps Bay suburb from Table Mtn:  Camps Bay video

Cable car from terminal: Cable car view from Terminal (2)

There is of course, a building where you can purchase souvenirs, complete with restaurant and restrooms.  I thought they had a clever way to mark the steps.

Up at the top, USA 15,121 KM

Patio off the restaurant

Those dots you see on the road to either side of the cable terminal, are cars! 
I think they need to build a parking area.

We managed to get back in time to join our group for the descent.  We all had to be accounted for because of our time restrictions to get back.  Our guide allowed time for one more stop at Camps Bay, a wealthy suburb of Cape Town that has great views of the Twelve Apostles Mountain formation.

The bus lets us off at Camps Bay beach and we get 15 minutes to take in the sights.  It does provide a good angle for the Twelve Apostles, which our guide says there are actually 17 peaks but, who’s counting.  She said apartments in this area go for about 5 million Rand ($250,000), way above the ability of most residents to afford.  Plus, everything has a 15.5% VAT, value added tax, that is added on at the end of all purchases.  This goes directly to the government to pay for all services, including health care.

Camps Bay below Twelve Apostles

Camps Bay beach with sign warning for sharks.
Water is too cold for swimming anyway.

We were back aboard the ship well before the 2PM deadline and we again had to surrender our passports.  None of us understands why they are doing this because we must get them back in two days to go through Namibia immigration.  Oh well, play along to get along.

Next stop, Walvis Bay, Namibia.  A neighboring African country just to the north of us.