Table Mountain Adventure

Trip Start Jun 14, 2008
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Trip End Jun 29, 2008

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Today was probably one of the most amazing days of the trip, although it didn't start out that way. It was a Sunday so Cape Town was pretty quiet. The weather wasn't very nice - off and on rain - so we spent the morning walking around to see a bit of the City. We went by City Hall and then to the Castle. We toured the castle, which was pretty interesting, but mostly closed off - again because it was Sunday. The military museum was open so we spent some time there. I learned about the settlement of Western and South Africa; first the Dutch and then the British. They fought over land for years, the most famous of which was the Boer War when the British defeated the Dutch. Interestingly, the Apartheid Museum attributed the formation of apartheid to the ancestors of the Dutch settlers wanting power for themselves, something that was an outgrowth of the long struggles against the British. It was a good way to spend the morning.

After the museum we walked down Government street, which was a lovely tree lined street with the Parliament building and museums on each side (see pics). It was about 2 PM and since the weather was still nasty we hadn't yet seen Table Mountain. Table Mountain is the mountain ubiquitous in pictures of Cape Town. Unfortunately, in the winter clouds keep it covered most of the time.

Without a plan to spend the rest of the afternoon, we sat down at a coffee shop contemplating what to do. As soon as we sat down, the clouds finally started to lift. We were so excited to see Table Mountain that we quickly finished our coffee and cake and decided to make our way to the Mountain. City Hall
City Hall
 We decided to walk - although probably not a great decision because it took over an hour just to get to the cableway that would take us to the top. By that time it was almost 4 PM, so we were facing the loss of daylight...again. We decided against a walk to the top, which would have required 2.5 hours, and took the cableway hoping to walk down before it got dark. Surprisingly, the cableway ride to the top made me quite nervous; being suspended in air like that. The realization that I was dangling from a little cable above a huge mountain set in and freaked me out a bit. The ride took all of 2 minutes but I was very glad to be at the top.

Once at the top the view was amazing. I wish my pictures did it justice. Everywhere I turned there was another amazing view of the mountain, the City, or of Lion's Head (a sister mountain). I found myself feeling somewhat naive; naive that I never knew such a place existed. I also wondered how all the people we had met in the past week that had been to Cape Town didn't talk about the view from the top of Table Mountain. That experience will be with me forever; and it was just the beginning.

We decided to start the walk down. We were told that it would take 1 hour and it was 5 PM so we should have been able to make it before dark. But when we asked some officials for directions to the start of the path, they "strongly discouraged" us from attempting the walk down. They said it was too dangerous because of the impending darkness and the moisture in the air. The Castle
The Castle
 Needless to say I was a little upset with them. I felt like they were trying to scare us so that we would pay the 50 Rands to take the cableway back down. And it worked. We made the decision to take the cableway down. But when we went to buy tickets the woman told us we should be fine - there were people walking down. That's all we needed to hear so we started our way down - it was 5:15 PM.

As soon as we turned the corner to start down the mountain we knew we made the right decision. What I saw walking down that mountain was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The mountainside was steep so the trail was winding back and forth. The trail was made up of large rocks that served as steps and formed a constant decline. I stopped multiple times just to take in the breathtaking views. All around us we could hear water running, either from the small stream running down the river or the rain water from earlier that day dripping off the rocks.

We knew it was getting late because the light was getting lower and lower on the side of the mountain as we walked down. Finally, when the sun started to set the rocks turned an orangish pink color that was even more amazing than the pictures show. I was very excited walking down - excited that we listened to our gut and took the walk down and excited by what I was seeing. But then reality set in. The end of the trail was not in sight and we were losing light fast. I was pushing us to go faster, afraid we'd lose the trail. A few times I got nervous when I lost the trail, but instinct kept us going. The anxiety and fear of being lost in the mountain only added to the overall excitement of the hike. And when we finally reached the highway we were greatly relieved because the sky was almost completely black. We walked along the highway for awhile until we finally made it back to the lower cableway.

We had had enough excitement for one night so we decided to call a cab to pick us up at the cableway. The obvious danger of walking on a dark highway in the middle of the mountains finally set in. The cab picked us up and took us to a restaurant on Kloof street. Our entire dinner was spent discussing the day - truly an amazing day. The pictures below are a mix from the day.
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