Table View

An old university friend who lives in Jo’berg had told us a while ago that we were undercooking our time in South Africa and he was dead right. Our 3 nights in Cape Town were nowhere near enough time to enjoy all that the city and its environs have to offer.

When we arrived in South Africa for the last leg of our African journey, we anticipated a more routine travel experience. We were very much looking forward to being in a large international city for almost the first time since London in mid January, taking advantage of the shopping and other amenities, whilst also being classic Cape Town tourists.

It certainly started out that way, mooching around the V & A Waterfront, people watching, sipping a sundowner with tapas, visiting the huge shopping mall and dining at Mojo Market near where we were staying in Seapoint. Seapoint also has an amazing stretch of promenade where it would appear every size, shape, colour and age of resident and visitor alike turns out to exercise at all times of the day. One block back from the ocean, are the bars and restaurants that make Seapoint such a vibrant, happening area of the city. The dining that we enjoyed here was top quality and inexpensive.

The other excellent visit we made was to the Botanical Gardens at Kirstenbosch. Elegance, variety and beauty are all laid out here along with historical context and quiet shady corners to drink it all in. A baking hot afternoon flew by strolling around the gardens and familiarising ourselves with the natural history of Cape Town.

The natural backdrop to the city are, of course, the mountains and hills that dominate the skyline no matter where you are, or what you are doing. Table Mountain, The 12 Apostles, Lion’s Head Hill and Signal Hill simply invite discovery.

We thought that an early morning hike up Lion’s Head Hill to see the sunrise would be an invigorating start to the day and with a swift Uber trip, we arrived at the bottom of the trail nice and early at around 0615. Us and about a zillion other people!

Even more disappointing, was the number of people coming down the mountain just as were setting off. It was still exhilarating to reach the top of the hill via the ladders, chains and rungs that are provided for the tricky bits but it irked us that the early birds had caught the sunrise and we were a little late. We made up for this disappointment by taking a turn halfway down Lion’s Head, to traverse Signal’s Hill and descend directly above our Seapoint guesthouse. We arrived back in time for breakfast, a communal affair where we picked up hints and tips from an Austrian couple who had been in town for a week already.

These kinds of conversations have been invaluable on our trip and on this occasion their advice led us to pick up our hire car a day early to explore the coastline south of the city. Great decision. Camps Bay was our first stop and it is a lively, beautifully maintained town on the other side of Table Mountain with a pristine beachfront and a super tidal swimming pool. Progressing down the coast, we took The Chapman’s Peak Drive to Noordhoek Beach. The drive is only 12kms but it has been carved out of the rocky cliffs with 114 bends and numerous viewing points. The road has been closed twice in recent years because of rockfalls and landslides but we were fine.

We also enjoyed the magnificent Noordhoek Beach, a great destination for surfers and horse riding with stables and riding schools dotted along the beach frontage. After a quick dip in the huge Atlantic rollers, we (I) managed to leave the car park with one of our phones (mine) on top of the car. Returning to the car park to see if it had fallen off, the parking guy pointed it out to us, still on the roof. A lucky escape!

That luck didn’t hold as we dined back in Camps Bay to watch the glorious sunset only to find a parking ticket tucked under the windscreen wipers. An expensive error!

Following our Lion’s Head disappointment, a much earlier start and a less well known route up Table Mountain were clearly called for and at 0530 the next day we were ready to attack The Steps of Mordor!

It is officially called The Plattenkirk Gorge but our name better reflected the vicious, vertical ascent that we undertook. We felt pretty smug that we were the only people on the route and in the darkness at that hour, the head torches that we had carried around with us for 6 weeks were great. Or, they would have been if we had remembered to take them. Instead, we shuffled around at the start of the climb waiting for the sky to lighten sufficiently for us to see the first rocky steps.

As we set off and the darkness faded, we realised that once again, we would not be seeing a sunrise. Thick clouds were rolling around the mountainside, surrounding us and visibility was no more than 50 meters. All we could see was the next flight of the path as it zig zagged up the mountain. If the route had not been as clear, we would probably have turned around. Thankfully, we didn’t as, 20 minutes from the summit, we literally poked our heads out of the clouds and saw not only the very top of The Steps of Mordor but also an incredibly bright blue sky above us. What joy and what relief!

Amongst the lunar landscape at the top, we felt as if we had conquered Everest when in fact we were only 20 minutes from the cable car station that would take us back down through the clouds. As we bought our tickets, the difficult and very strenuous climb was rewarded as the cloud started to burn off and we could see glimpses of the city below us.

And that just about sums up our much too short Cape Town experience - glimpses of an amazing, cosmopolitan city that seems to have a huge amount to offer to the tourist, the outdoor enthusiast and the foodie. We have loved it so much that we have already added it to our list of must return to places.

A place to spend a British winter perhaps?Leer más