So What’s it Like up there

On Top of Table Mountain?

After all we don’t often come across a mountain with such a flat top do we and I’ve often wondered what grows up there, on level ground with plenty of moisture from its almost daily table cloth? So we were going to find out.

Eight years short of its centenary this cable car trip has allowed millions of folk to make the same journey. There are just two cars, speeding up and down on the same make of German cables as Zoonie’s new rigging, and providing an all round view as the floor turns, disconcertingly at first, especially if one hasn’t been listening to the commentary and warning! They can take an alarming 65 people at once but we were about 7 strong and feeling like VIPs with the place almost to ourselves because of the lack of overseas visitors.

The substantial building that receives the car at the top looks like a pimple from a distance but we were confident of its integrity, after all it is sitting on a foundation half a billion years old.

Summer is on the decline here and spring a distant memory so the few flowers we saw are reminders of the masses that must look fabulous in full bloom but are now dried or turned into fruit and seed heads. There are many paths for the energetic around the mountain, starting with gentle but exposed paths from the bottom that grind on up through rocky gorges to the summit and two routes to follow on the top; we took the longer Klipspringer Trail in the light breeze and warm air.

Interspersed beneath the foliage and low bushes are the smoothed rocks containing a myriad of water worn pools that must look spectacular after rain with the blue-sky glistening on their watery surfaces. An abundance of life hides away from the drying sun. We spotted just colourful butterflies and some beady eyed lizards. There is a healthy lack of warning signs and fencing on the top; it’s down to one’s common sense and instinct for survival to stay safe. Rob made me edgy as he stepped close to a ravine side for a peep down one of the tracks, but a woman posing for a photo on top of a rock barely wider than her feet, with her husband and son watching and a 1000 metre drop behind her that was just plain annoying.

We came upon two Indian men for a nice chat. They live in Jo’burg and were soon despairing of the mess the government is making in many ways and the rampant corruption. “They could keep corruption at say 5 – 10% but this is excessive and destructive for everybody.” President Cyril Ramaphosa is adamant he will rid the government of corruption even while he personally is under investigation for the same crime.

“Why couldn’t they make the handover gradual so we could show them how to do it?” Is a common refrain. They were OK with handing over in principle but despaired for everyone suffering under their incompetence. Of apartheid the gentleman I was speaking to said they as well as the blacks were on the wrong side of the white bosses, but despite this, after a short visit to India, they still couldn’t wait to get back to SA.

He told me that Jo’burg, being a working place where people struggle to earn a living, is not nearly as relaxed and friendly as Cape Town. I asked him if I was right in sensing a comfortable diversity of humanity, co-existing to an extent a person could enjoy good mental health, life style and relationships and he agreed. The petty and sometimes nasty crime that goes on here is no different to anywhere else.

We enjoyed a light lunch with our own view over the mountain range through the open doors and only a handful of other diners sitting at well-spaced seating areas, and descended once again in the car thinking how we had chosen the right day.

I hope you enjoy both photo files of the top of the mountain and the one of our bus ride before the visit and back past the beaches, coming up shortly….