Table Mountain - Out to Africa - Cape Town 2025

 Table Mountain - no tablecloth

Our spinning lift to the Table top

Cape Town with Robben Island

We had to delay our trip to Table Mountain by one day. High winds stopped play! When the lift is closed, you have to walk up to the table top, and that's not for us. The wind dropped, and the clouds cleared for our day on the Table. We waited for the morning rush hour to disperse before getting in our little car in Somerset West and heading to Cape Town on the M2. The traffic was okay initially, but then it slowed to a stop, and we were diverted through Mitchells Plain and some less than savoury areas. Eventually, we rejoined the M2 and took a convoluted route to our Kloof Nek Park and Ride on the hillside. Well, it's supposed to be Park and Ride but became Stand and Wait. Roadworks meant the shuttle buses were being held up. We took a taxi with a couple from Sussex who were also short of patience in the burning midday sun. Once at the lift, we discovered a mammoth queue estimated to be about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Far too long for us. We opted to upgrade our standard pre-booked fare to the Fast Track option; it meant paying an extra £50, but hey-ho. With the extra payment, the queue shrank miraculously to 15 minutes, and we were soon on our way up on the Cable Car. It has a weird turntable floor so that nobody can hog the best view. Our Sussex taxi mates were on the same lift, having also paid the upgrade fee. A rapid rise to the top and time to take in the view. 

 

Pretty stupendous outlook up there and certainly provides an excellent overview of Cape Town and the locality. The geography is quite complicated around the Cape and it's easier to understand with an eagles eye view. Quite busy, of course. I suppose if you have waited hours to get up there, you are not going to do a quick turnaround. It's also fair to assume a lot of the punters were yesterday's men and women whose visits, like ours, had been delayed by the windy weather. We had a bit of lunch in a cafe up top. Not very exciting but probably our fault as we noticed a better place to eat near the Fast Track entrance on the way down. Once at the bottom we bumped into our Sussex mates again. They were going to drive to Chapmans Peak wheras we planned to go to the V & A waterfront. We decided that as it was such a lovely clear day we should do something similar and save the waterfront for another day. 

Table Mountain is clearly not as flat as it looks from below

 Lovely - Llandudno Beach

We put Camps Bay into our Sat Nav and headed off on our next adventure. It wasn't far to the Atlantic Coast and we were soon down on Llandudno Beach which was lovely. Only time for a paddle in the clean but icy cold water before heading on to Hout Bay where we stopped at the Chapmans Peak Hotel for a drink. We took a seat in the comfortable cafe only to be tapped on the shoulder by our new friends from Sussex. Unbeknown to us they had also stopped at the same place, quite a coincidence. We joined them and decided to also have something to eat. After a pleasant stop we headed on to Chapmans Peak. This stretch is a toll road and very scenic. Its probably more enjoyable in the opposite direction as its easier to stop although a certain vertigo sufferer probably would not agree, particularly as she had already seen enough steep drops up on the Table! We pushed on, making the occasional photo stop, towards Kalk Bay and then up the M3 towards Cape Town. The sun was starting to go down at this point and we were a bit concerned that if we got lost we might be vulnerable. Our map had recommended a scenic drive along False Bay but we were advised that this might not be safe. There was a horrendous traffic jam in the opposite direction which added to our anxiety. Anyway, all is well that ends well and we made it back to Just Unwind just after dark at 8pm

By the way we spotted the Monkey Valley just above the fantastic Noordhoek beach. We thought it might be a nice place to stay - until we looked at the reviews. What a fantastic location.

Nordhoek Beach