An Omnipresent Table

There is no escaping Table Mountain. Embedded in the labyrinth of docks, balconies and walkways at the Waterfront or the Cape Docks.

In the successive coves to the east and south that the South Atlantic lashes without clamor and covers with enormous algae: Sea Point, Bantry Bay, Clifton, Camps Bay, as well as other more distant ones, to the north, Table View and Bloubergstrand.

The same goes for the intricate interior of the city, be it the colorful Bo-Kaap or the more serious and composed around De Waterkant or Zonne Bloem.

Table Mountain's full profile of a sandy beach in Table Bay, north of Cape Town.

As long as the weather does not contemplate low clouds, Table Mountain creeps into the Cape Town and to the vast surroundings as the secular guardian of the great South African city that it has become.

This flattened mountain protects it from southerly winds and most variants. For centuries, it facilitated its defense and, not least, gave settlers and current citizens of the Cape Town one of the most dazzling addresses on the face of the Earth.

The first afternoon, we spent it at the same Victoria & Alfred Waterfront that functioned as a merchandise wharf in the days of the Dutch East India Company, when the area north of Cape Town (Table Bay) became known as “The Taverna of the Seas” due to its preponderance in the supply of Dutch ships, but not only that.

The Stunning Tablecloth

A thick, surreptitious fog had crept up the South Atlantic. It hovered over the harbor area and kept even the roofs of the highest buildings covered.

Just towards the end of the day, a providential wind blew it to other places and let us glimpse the cliffs overlooking Table Mountain, from Devil's Peak at the eastern edge of its nearly two miles in length to Lion's Head at the opposite end.

Of the mist, there was only a streak that hung from the top of the plateau, more or less extensive, depending on the intensity of the southwest wind and the density of the orographic clouds already formed.

The famous tablecloth (cloud tablecloth) covers Table Mountain, as seen from the Cape Town Waterfront.

The natives are already used to the appearance of what they nicknamed Table Cloth and its magical movement over the mountain. They have appreciated, portrayed and qualified it in ways that have been refined over time. Some say that it is God himself who lays out the towel.

Among the community of Malays based in Cape Town, the myth became popular that the effect results from a peculiar smoking competition. Van Hunks, a retired Dutch pirate, never put down his pipe. He was smoking by the foot of Devil's Peak when a stranger approached and challenged him to a pipe duel.

After a long day of smoke (it is even said that the duel will have lasted several days) a huge cloud of smoke had enveloped them and Table Mountain. Van Hunks realized not only that he had won the duel but that his rival was the Devil. The two disappeared in a flash of lightning. left behind the tablecloth which is, today, from time to time, visible.

As a rule, when the “table is set”, and the wind or rain is too strong, the authorities close the accesses to the top of the mountain. So we arrived at night curious about what would happen the next day. We were supposedly approaching the end of autumn in the region.

Against all logic, the Cape Town it maintained maximum temperatures well above 25º and days with clear skies in an anachronistic sequence that was too long, which would lead to the situation of drastic drought in which it remained.

Conquering Table Mountain

The new dawn confirmed yet another one of those days of blue skies and unusual heat. We didn't even hesitate. We left the Sea Point inn, hurriedly devoured a breakfast and got on the bus. Half an hour later, we were on board the revolving cable car that took us to the top of Table Mountain.

The cable car with revolving cabins that connects the base to the top of Table Mountain

As you climb, the cabin reveals the impressive panoramas at the foot of the mountain: Lion's Head on the opposite side of the gorge.

Little by little, the houses of Cape Town increasing in size, with the CBD's skyscrapers standing out above the rest; the Waterfront area, its docks, Table Bay and, almost out of sight in silver, the silhouette of Robben Island where the South African Apartheid authorities held Nelson Mandela imprisoned.

After these atrocious times, the South Africa he is concerned with the appearance of a first-world social justice that must be even more unsuspected in a tourist context.

Contrary to what happens in so many cable cars across the planet, instead of people jostling each other and fighting for the windows facing the most photogenic side, the cabin rotated as it went up. Technology thus resolved, in an equal manner, the anxiety shared on board.

At the top, at more than 1000 meters – 1,086m is the maximum altitude of Table Mountain – the wind was blowing violently, but not enough or, perhaps in a different direction than the one that forced the authorities to suspend the cable car trips, sometimes for days. the thread.

The Grand Scenarios and Mythology of Africa's Bottoms

From balconies that served as viewpoints, we were dazzled for the first time by the geological sumptuousness and complexity of the surrounding scenery. To the south, a long sandstone promontory tinted with shallow vegetation stretched to a distant marine horizon. It was the Cape Peninsula.

The sandstone peaks and vegetation of the Twelve Apostles, preceding the long Cape Peninsula that ends at the Cape of Good Hope and its Ponta do Cabo.

On one side, it found the South Atlantic, on a slope that started abruptly and then softened and gave way to the ocean in a soft green slope.

On the opposite side, the Peninsula overlooked False Bay, which Portuguese sailors began to call Cabo Falso because, when returning from the East, in that intricate configuration at the back of Africa, they often confused Cape Hangklip with Ponta do Cape of Good Hope, the most infamous and feared of coastal points because they passed, despite the re-baptism by Bartholomew Dias.

Despite the success of the pioneer crossing to the Indian Ocean, in their imaginations, Table Mountain, the Cape Peninsula, Cape of Good Hope, Tip of the Cape and the furious storms that so often forced them to cross, continued to justify a fearful imagery.

Camões attributed it to the grief of Adamastor, one of the giants of Greek mythology, banished to the Cape by the nymph Doris, for having fallen in love with her daughter Tethis.

For, according to Camões, Adamastor now appeared in the Cape's domains in the form of a storm. Despite the success of Bartholomew Dias, continued for a long time to sink many of the ships that sought to cross from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

No Northwind Weather Signals

On that glorious day, we saw no sign of the monster. Much closer, we detected the call “Back table”, its twin peaks known as “Twelve Apostles” and the rounded beaches of Bantry Bay, Clifton and Camps Bay.

Man inscribes graphics on the sand of Glen Beach with the Twelve Apostles in the background

Also Sea Point Bay where we were staying and the profusion of luxury villas and villas, some of the most valuable properties in the Cape Town.

Just below the balconies, indifferent to three mountaineers preparing a rappel descent, a colony of hyraxes fought the damp chill brought by the wind, absorbing the sun's heat behind a barrier of rocks. Out of nowhere, just as many hikers emerge from a hidden path.

They had followed the pioneering example of António de Saldanha – but a different path – and climbed the mountain on foot. This Portuguese, who believes himself to be of Castilian origin, was a captain and navigator who was part of the 1503 fleet of Afonso de Albuquerque.

On that expedition, he was tasked with taking the three vessels he commanded to join the fleet that had sailed ahead. Further down the course, Saldanha and his men would patrol and prey on Arab trade in the Red Sea.

Saldanha and the First European Ascension

Not necessarily for the best reasons, Saldanha anchored in Table Bay and was the first European to ascend Table Mountain. Since leaving Lisbon, the vessels commanded by him suffered from poor pilotage.

In the eminence of the Cape, Saldanha had miscalculated his crossing and anchored in an early place. Confused by what was going on, he landed in the Table Bay area.

He climbed the adjacent mountain and named it Taboa do Cabo. From the top, you could see that the Point of the Cape of Good Hope it was to the south, still to cross.

Table Mountain Explorer expresses the sense of freedom and vastness felt at the top of Table Mountain.

Saldanha and the crew stocked up on water there, excavated a large cross that can be found in the vicinity of Lion's Head and got involved in a small dispute with the Khoikhoi indigenous people, the dominant African ethnic group when the Europeans arrived. Saldanha suffered only minor injuries. He was able to return to the boat and continue his bumpy journey.

At present, encounters with the natives of Cape Town they are affable and are recommended. Both the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and the navigation around Table Mountain, the ascent to the mountain and the walks on its plateau are facilitated.

Even if the resident wild fauna is much more prolific than the simple hyraxes that are displayed to newcomers.

In addition to these easygoing hyracoids, porcupines, lizards, turtles, mongooses and their arch-rival snakes of various species inhabit the mountain. Until 1990, baboons were also present. Today, its anti-tourist guerrilla actions are mainly centered on Ponta do Cabo.

A series of rails with different amplitudes start from the front of the “Shop of the Top” and walk along the top of the plateau.

We took one that led inland to Maclear's Beacon, a pile of stones erected by the Irish physician-astronomer Sir Thomas Maclear in 1865 to help measure the curvature of the Earth.

From there, we cut to the vicinity of Devil's Peak and then to the north precipice of Table Mountain, where the vertiginous top of the cliffs once again reveal the houses of the Cape Town, its Waterfront and the vast Table Bay.

The Mystic Sunset over the old End of the Earth

In this area, several groups stop and indulge in photos and selfies that are too risky, on pebbles that peek into the imminent abyss.

In the stretch that precedes the return to the cable car, with the sun starting to set to the west, we noticed the profusion of human silhouettes that used these pebbles as pedestals and were eternalized in that very memorable place. More than convinced when it came to the setting, we sat for a moment admiring its intriguing casual choreographies.

Figures of visitors sharing the rocky summit of Table Mountain

But, we had planned to climb Lion's Head in time to enjoy the panoramic Table Mountain in the ultimate twilight. So we hurried down one of the last cable cars and pointed to the hill. By that time, a platoon of other trekkers were fighting for the two marked trails.

We make a mistake and we get involved in the most dissimulated and long way. Error forces us to climb the mountain at a cruel pace. We reached the top drenched in sweat and with our hearts racing at a rate we thought humanly impossible. In any case, we were in the most central of the city's panoramic points.

We could walk around it and admire and photograph Table Mountain, from Devils Peak to the depths of Cape Peninsula. Back, the houses of Cape Town, in all its diversity and richness, it was available and gained color and drama as the electric lighting and the warmed up streak of the afterglow hit it.

Evening surrounds Table Mountain, seen from the top of Lion's Head.

Until the pitch set, we circled over that exuberant lion's head countless times, panting, exhausted, undecided about what impressed us most and what we wanted to record of such monstrous scenarios.

More information about Table Mountain and tips for discovering it on the Cape Town Tourism website (in English).