Despite being probably the most famous, Table Mountain is the last one left on our list of places to visit in Cape Town. This is actually down to weather rather than planning. So often there is a blanket of cloud covering the top of the mountain (popularly called the table cloth), which obscures the views from up there. Also, when they get gale force winds, they close down the cable car service - something that happened yesterday. However, it's been on our agenda for the past week, we've waited as long as we can and we're leaving later today so it's now or never! We really need to stop leaving everything till the last minute. Luckily for us, we wake up to bright sunshine, a clear Table-top and no wind whatsoever.
We get there for when the cable car opens at 8.30 (very early for us) but there's already a huge line of people. It turns out other people want to go up today as well! The staff are obviously well used to dealing with large numbers of visitors though and within half an hour we're loaded on to a cable car and finally we're on our way up Table Mountain.
The cable car itself is really cool. It looks brand new (although it is actually now over 10 years old), is much larger than a normal cable car (you can cram in 65 people) and the floor rotates so you get a 360-degree view on your way up (and down). The journey takes just under 10 minutes but this feels a lot shorter because of the fantastic views you are being treated to. It's like an attraction on its own!
At the top, the weather is cooler but this morning it's so nice, not even long sleeves are needed. The area up there is huge but unfortunately for us, we're on a strict timescale as we have to get back to the hostel and check out by 10am. So we can only do a quick tour around the main developed area around the cable car station. Nevertheless, this is awesome and you can see the views we got from our pictures.
Considering the fact that it was the first thing we saw when first approaching Cape Town, and we saw it literally every day we were in the city, we would have been very stupid to have missed the chance to come up here. It's an iconic part of the the city's skyline and definitely one of Cape Town's highlights!
