Table Mountain

Cape Town's biggest tourist attraction is Table Mountain and is one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. The highest point of Table Mountain is 3,563 feet above sea level and top is flat and overlooks the city. The flat top is approximately 2 miles from one side to the other.

You can hike up or take the cable car, which we did, and the views from this landmark are spectacular.

There are often orographic clouds at the top of the mountain. It looks similar to smoke but is actually the result of a south-easterly wind rising up to meet the mountain's cooler air. These clouds often sock in the mountain so you can't see any of the view...it was completely covered with clouds our first day so we were super lucky that is was clear all day for us on Sunday.

It is thought to be one of the oldest mountains in the world. The rocks of the mountain are approximately 600 million years old. The rocks at the base of the mountain are shale and the rocks at the western side are Cape granite.
Table Mountain is 6 times older than the Himalayas. It's 5 times older than the Rocky Mountains.

The most common animal we saw on the mountain is this creature that resembles a guinea pig called the rock hyrax...... even though it looks like a rodent its closest relative is actually the elephant.

We spend a good hour exploring the hiking paths and enjoying the view before heading down and spending our afternoon on the white sands of Camps Bay beach and enjoying the sunset.

Cape Town

We made it to Cape town in one piece after 2 super long flights. The first flight from Calgary to Amsterdam was the shortest at 8 hours... but felt like it took forever, probably because it was during the day and we didn't sleep during it. We were pretty exhausted going into the second 11 hour flight from Amsterdam to Cape Town and with the help if some immovane, we both slept for most of it and it went by so much faster.

The planes we were on were surprisingly crappy, especially since we heard everyone rave about how amazing KLM airlines was....they were super old, small cramped planes with no electronics plug-ins and a lot of the TV's and seats were broken. I don't know if we just had bad luck or what, but I haven't anytime recently been on a long international flight that used such an old planes/technology.

We arrived in Cape town around 9:30 pm and made our way to our really cute bed and breakfast...It's in a quiet neighbourhood a few minutes walk to the beach, a few block from a" hop on, hop off bus" route and a really nice walk down to the V &A waterfront. Really quiet too. We came home from dinner last night and found they had turned down our beds and left hot water bags under the covers to warm our feet!! For an inexpensive B&B it was great service. Their breakfast is really delicious as well.

Today we walked down to the beach after breakfast and made our way to the V&A Waterfront via a really scenic beach path, We played tourist and went to a huge aquarium.

 

 

We had lunch at this really cool farmer's market...it was super cheap and really gourmet. Scott paid about $5 for this steak on mashed potatoes drizzled with truffle hollandaise sauce...it looked right out of a 5star restaurant.

Scott's $5 gourmet steak!

After lunch we bought a 2 day pass for their "Hop on Hop off" bus. It basically has a bunch of different lines that run all over the city and stop at every place you could possible want to see. Very convenient and great value for money. We were going to go to the top of Table Mountain, probably Cape Town's biggest tourist attraction, but it was socked in with clouds today so instead made our way to the Bo Kaap neighbourhood.

Look for us on the top of the bus...we were reflecting in a mirrored building.

Known for its brightly coloured houses and situated at the foot of Signal hill , Bo-Kaap is the spiritual home of the Cape’s Muslim community.

The residents are descendants of slaves from Malaysia, Indonesia and various African countries, who were imported to the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch during the 16th and 17th centuries. The houses where built for them to live in and once freed they were all painted in different vibrant colors and it one of the most colorful and most photographed areas here...everything is protected and cannot be changed so this area remains one of the only area that looks just like it used to.

We walked back to the hotel from just past camp's Bay, a super rich and picturesque beach neighbourhood.

We both crashed hard as jet leg hit us simultaneously.
We eventually dragged ourselves to dinner and got a second wind around 8pm. We went to this amazing restaurant and had this spectacular meal that would have easily cost $150 in Canada for $36 not including a tip.

Tonight we crash hard! Tomorrow we will attempt Table mountain again!