Table Mountain Cable Car - by Vicki

Tuesday 8 January 2013
Today Zeke, Nina and I set out early to catch the 6.30am train from Simon’s Town to Cape Town to make our ascent of Table Mountain. I had checked the weather the night before, it advised sunny, no clouds and moderate winds. Winds speed is important because they do stop the cable cars ascending and descending in high winds.

We arrived in Cape Town on schedule and in Adderley Street caught a taxi to the lower cable car station. The mountain top was clear with high cloud moving sedately overhead. On the approach road there are many cars – many people walk up and ride the cable car down. We chose the easy option – ride up and down in the cable car.

Near the ticket book we are marshaled into a queue under a linear shelter. We join the other tourists from all corners of the globe. As we wait I spot the notice board; Wind strong, temperature cold! Ticket purchasing is quick and efficient, and we progress up to the cable car departure point.

Zeke studies the cable cars as they ascend and descend. Zeke notices water dripping from the bottom of one car and wonders why this is so. The cars carry up to 65 people and we certainly felt like sardines in a can on the way up. The cable car revolves under its support post and does one complete revolution on its ascent providing spectacular valley and close-up cliff views, and no bangs or jolts along the way to frighten the height challenged.

Table Mountain Cablecar has been running for 80 years and was last upgraded in 1997

At 9.00am the air is brisk and moderately windy as we wander along the mountain plateau catching picture postcard views at every turn – south to Hout Bay and Simon’s Town (Cape of Good Hope is hidden in the sea mist), north to Robben Island, and east to the Cape Flats.

North - Cape Town 

Southwest – Hout Bay

We hunch our shoulders in our polar fleece jackets and hope the sun will shine a little brighter. Nina spots a Dassie or Rock Rabbit, which looks a bit like a guinea pig, before it darts under a rock. Wild flowers are blooming everywhere. The terrain is slightly undulating and mostly rocky, paths are created by concrete in-fill. The vegetation is low, wind pruned heath and looks very similar to Mt Wellington's.

Rock Dassie emerging to forage

Vegetation on the mountain top

Rocky area interspersed with vegetation

We complete the circuit walk close to the cable car in about 30 minutes and because the weather looks fine we decide to head to the highest peak in the Table Mountain Range – Maclear’s Beacon (1085 metres). This circuit walk takes us 1.5 hours including a stop for morning tea. The walk is pleasant on good tracks and some board walk and there are only a half dozen walkers heading out and back. On the outward section the track looks south revealing bays and peaks. On the return we curve to the north along the escarpment with amazing views along the cliff face and into the valley and Cape Town below. We do not wander off the path having spotted a number of rock overhangs. The scale of the mountain makes it very difficult to capture good images; likewise the weather produces lots of haze making for fuzzy photos. The scenery is rugged, steep and worth the effort to explore.

Nina and Zeke atop Maclear’s Beacon

 The scenery is rugged and steep

At our toilet stop Zeke found out why the cable car’s were dripping water – there are tanks under the floor to take water to the restaurant, cafe, toilets on the mountain top. This water is also used to in high winds to stabilise the cable cars. Sewage is taken off the mountain in tanks attached externally to the bottom of the cable cars.

Retail opportunities are catered to on the mountain top – we purchase one postcard from the gift shop but by-pass the cafe. We do not linger, making our escape from the now teaming masses and catch a taxi back into the city and then the next train to Simon’s Town just after midday.

The escarpment of Table Mountain

 The Cablecar descends

 

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