Travelling Worm

This is the blog of Mark Wordsworm, the travelling worm. I’m a 36-year-old bookmark (give or take a few years) and I proudly boast my own Hallmark serial number, 95 HBM 80-1. You’ll probably want to read all about me and my Travelling Companion (the TC).

Today’s travel notes

Me and the TC spent a few days recently in Cape Town, South Africa. A must-do is the trip via cable car to the top of Table Mountain. The day we’d scheduled for the outing dawned cloudy and cold. We went up the mountain anyway. The TC is like that. Tomorrow may never come, she opines, and even if it does, there’s no guarantee it’ll turn out better than today.

The book I’m in

A Slim Green Silence, by Beverly Rycroft. This is a beautifully-written and engaging read. The author melds Afrikaans phrases with English prose, and a dash of Xhosa here and there. For a reader who’s lived in South Africa, it’s a pleasure to experience through the book the mix of cultures in a small South African town.

Travel tips

If you have a clear day, use it to go up the mountain. Even if you don’t have a clear day, go up the mountain anyway.

The photos

Me among the fynbos atop Table Mountain:

Fynbos is the name given to the vegetation in this area of Southern Africa. It’s uniquely hardy and beautiful, and it feeds and shelters the animals and birds of the mountain too.

The next shot shows Table Mountain in all its splendour, photographed from The Waterfront at the Cape Town harbour. On the left of the photograph is the mountain named Devil’s Peak. In the middle is Table Mountain itself, with the hotels and docks of the Waterfront in the foreground. The hill on the right is Signal Hill:

To get to the top of the mountain, we drove through the city, up Kloof Nek road through Tamboerskloof and Oranjezicht, until we reached the lower cable station. From that vantage point, we saw the city of Cape Town and suburbs laid out below us:

The lower station was clear and sunny as we started our ride to the top:

There are two cable cars, as you can deduce from the two housings in the station. They travel at the same time, one on its way up the mountain and the other on its way down.

The ride up was lovely, though a little eerie when we entered the cloud layer and the rest of the world disappeared. We couldn’t even see the hulking huge mountain that was just outside the window. I’d show you a photo, but all you’d see is a blank wall of grey.

What’s it like on the top of the mountain when cloud is rolling up from below? Watch this video to find out:

On the western side of the mountain is the seaside suburb of Camps Bay:

On the eastern side is Devil’s Peak and the suburb of Oranjezicht:

A pinky orange lily poked above the rocks:

An Orange-breasted Sunbird perched on an aloe:

A couple of Red-winged Starlings flitted around us. Needless to say, yours truly stayed under cover while these formidable creatures had their beady eyes on us:

Daisies did their level best to brighten up a grey day. That’s what daisies do:

The top of Table Mountain really is flat. There are some good paths, especially on the front table near the top cable station:

Due to the mist, we decided to restrict our trip to just the front table. On other trips, we’ve made the crossing to the back table and walked all the way to Maclear’s Beacon. That’s a round trip of a couple of hours, and we didn’t think it wise given the current low visibility. So, back to the top cable station.

This picture shows both the top and the bottom cable stations. It gives a good idea of the steep trip ahead of us!

The two cable cars pass each other, one on the way up and the other on the way down:

Aboard the cable car once more, we saw the cables descending into the cloud:

On the way down, we passed the other cable car on its way up. Here’s a view taken from our cable car, showing the upper station in the mist behind the other car:

Table Mountain is a natural wonder and a place of calm and beauty. Heed the words of a wise worm: It’s well worth a visit.

That’s all for today, folks.