No Dassies on the Table
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
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256
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Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Cape Town,
Western Cape,
South Africa
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Coming back from Stellenbosch on the train it looked like it was going to be our first day of clear weather. Getting closer to Table Mountain we saw that it wasn't covered with the "Tablecloth," the cloud that hovers over the top of the mountain on most days. Now the only problem would be that high winds had closed down the cablecar (there are an awful lot of conditions to be met before you can climb Table Mountain)
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.But the weather held, the clouds kept away, and we scrambled to check in, eat lunch, and take a taxi to the lower cable car station. We apparently weren't the only ones who had decided this was a good day to come. We had a big line and a long wait. But we finally made our way into the very flashy looking cablecar (Visa really is everywhere you want to be). The cheerful attendant in the middle instructed everyone holding on to the railing to let go because the floor was going to rotate. I do not believe this helped the people that were scared to begin with. But as the cablecar zoomed up the mountain, performing a slow 360 degree rotation so we had a view of everything, most people made oohing and aahing sounds. It was a pretty spectacular ride. First you see the city laid our below you, then the ocean crashing around it, then you are turned to see the cablecar zooming smoothly towards the huge looming rocks of Table Mountain. It reminded me of our of those amazing visual panaroma sweeps you see in the movies. When it appeared that we would plow right into the mountainside, we smoothly docked with the upper cable station and entered the top of the Table.
Table Mountain is an interesting visit for quite a few reasons. First of all, it's got its own set of unique flora and fauna
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. In fact, the Cape has its own floral kingdom all to itself, with over 1800 unique species (don't quote me on the exact number). So there are these weird plants and flowers draped over these big eroded rocks. The Table is also home to some Dassies, which we first met in Kenya as Hyraxes. They are big ugly brown-rats with the dubious claim to fame of being the closest relative of the elephant. I suppose if you removed an elephant's tusks, trunk, and ears, shrunk it down a whole lot, gave it brown hair and a bad overbite, then it would sort of look like a Dassie. Sort of. I guess we'll just have to take the informative sign at it's word. Aside from the Table itself, the views are amazing. And the nice thing is that there are different views in every direction. Look north and you can see Cape Town laid out at your feet. Farther out is Robben Island and Table Bay. Behind all that is the mainland, with huge mountains lining the coast. On the other side the mountains continue on to the Cape of Good Hope. To either side you can look down and see the beach suburbs and the crashing waves.
We spent quite a lot of time ambling around, taking pictures of weird flowers, Dassies, and the views. On the far side of the mountain a great display of yellow flowers sprout up everywhere
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. It's definitely a nice day trip. Since the weather was definitely going to hold we decided to take the easiest path down Table Mountain to the lower cable station. It was very simple, except that it was a good 1000 meters straight down on stone steps. We were sore for days afterwards and would walk down steps with groans and strange looking lurches. Ah, the things we do to save 15 bucks.
But hey, we had seen Table Mountain. Now we only needed two more days of good weather for Simon's Town and Robben Island.
~Travis
