Table Mountain

Today has been a good day (despite a bit of rain first thing) since we finally managed to go up to the summit of Table Mountain. First thing it wasn’t looking promising, with rain and low cloud everywhere, and Table Mountain having a really thick ‘tablecloth’ of cloud.

So we got on the hop-on hop-off red bus (we’ve been using that a lot here) to the vibrant V&A Waterfront. Must admit that I thought V&A stood for Victoria and Albert. Wrong! The ‘A’ is Alfred, Queen Victoria’s second son, who was head of the Royal Navy. The harbour is the oldest working harbour in the Southern hemisphere and has loads of great places here to eat and drink, plus one of those brilliant indoor markets selling lots of food and artisan products.

Being Friday lunchtime the place was heaving, with tourists mingling with local workers looking for a POETS day lunch. The sun finally came out and we found a table in the sunshine at a tapas bar on the waterfront.

Then we hopped onto another red bus that took us round to the cable car base of Table Mountain. The sky had now completely cleared and we could see the top. Such is the popularity of the mountain with both tourists and locals alike that often the waiting times for a cable car (which actually rotates slowly whilst in transit) can be up to an hour, but we managed to get on one straight away, having taken a chance by pre-booking some weeks ago.

Suffice to say the views over Cape Town and the coast were awesome. At the summit there are various  paved walks and hikes available, offering amazing views of  all parts of the city.

On descending we hopped on another red bus to take us back to our base in Camps Bay. Given the lack of alcohol stores back at base we bought a bottle of the local red before getting on the cable car. Well, when in Rome….

There is a major world cycling event taking place in Cape Town this weekend, so thousands of cyclists have descended on the city, with many basing themselves in Camps Bay, which is on the 111 kilometre route, so there are bikes and Lycra everywhere! A total of around 35,000 cyclists are expected to be taking part in the main event, which starts early on Sunday morning. We are heading off to our next venue, along the coast, on Sunday, but with most local roads being closed because of the event it should make leaving the area more than a bit challenging. Still, thankfully dear, dear Johnny is kindly acting as our chauffeur for the next leg. so hopefully we shouldn’t have too many problems.