Table Mountain has always been a big one for me! It was one of the very first things I saw in Cape Town (I have any blurry plane photos to prove that) and it had me bouncing like a kid in a candy shop the first time I saw it in the distance on the drive into the city.
Following our day with the penguins and that amazing drive across the Cape Peninsula, we arrived back into Cape Town in the cloak of night. (Okay, that sounds more dramatic than it really is – we actually arrived at 8pm.)
We stayed at The Glen when we were in Cape Town which was such a brilliant find on Lloyd’s part. The service here is exceptional and it’s one of those places where everyone will know you by your name (and you’ll probably get to meet the manager too). It’s high tripadvisor ranking is very much deserved and it’s so worth every penny!
We very quickly got changed and headed back out again for dinner at somewhere different from the first night in Cape Town. But more on that some other time.
One drink led to two, which led to three and before you knew it, we were stumbling into our uber and pretty much hot-footing it to our beds!
We’d been waking up at 5am on safari so the early night can kinda be excused as being akin to jet-lag… or at least that’s my excuse for this night! 🙂 And to be fair, we did get up bright and early to head up to Table Mountain. (We had a day tour booked starting around 11am so we really had to try and squeeze in a visit to Cape Town into that morning).
Getting to Table Mountain is fairly easy. Getting parking at Table Mountain is another ball game entirely. You can park on the road leading up but it’s still a steep walk so your best bet is to skip your car and get a taxi here. Or you could park in the lower car park and catch the free shuttle bus up (bus takes like 5 minutes, if that to be honest).
Within a few short minutes (and several ear pops later), a revolving cable car whisks you right up to the top of the mountain, offering pretty great views as you slowly progress upwards.
If you look closer at the mountains, you can see people climbing the mountain. I have to admit, at the time, it looked like these people tried walking up it and lost their way and so decided to just carry on.
On closer inspection, I realised they were actually abseiling.
Once you get right up to the top, the view is absolutely spectacular. Honestly, like the drive wasn’t already enough, Cape Town’s charms already had me falling deeper in love with South Africa.
If we didn’t have a tour booked for the day, I very much think I would have loved to call that beach down there ‘my office for the day’!
Also, as it turns out, abseiling down the mountain seems like a fairly common sport here.
At the top, you can of course go wandering around to get a fuller picture of the city…
…and the other neighbouring mountains.
Above is Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was jailed for 18 years.
Said, it before and I’ll say it again, the view from Table Mountain is spectacular and, hands down, the best in Cape Town!
You should have seen the look on this guy’s girlfriend’s face when she realised the length he’d go to just to get the perfect Facebook photo!
After a visit to Table Mountain and soaking in the views of Cape Town, the question on my mind was – well, where’s the best view of Table Mountain itself?
The answer? Signal hill. The drive is near the exit so you might as well pop in on your way out. 🙂
Thankfully, we were able to squeeze this trip in just before we went off in search of whales (and wine) but if we did this again, I’d definitely leave a lot more time to truly soak in the wonder that is Table mountain… and at least leave some time for a drink or two! 😉
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