Table Mountain

 On our second full day in Cape Town we were scheduled to join a tour that included riding the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. In discussing our trip ahead of time with a friend in Cody (thanks, Ann!) she suggested we hike up the mountain instead. Our guide in Sabi Sands was a Cape Town native and he agreed that climbing the landmark was certainly doable for those in good shape.

So that morning we decided to forego the tour bus in favor of a taxi that would take us to the Platteklip trailhead at the base of the mountain. On one hand we were lucky that we were planning to climb the peak on our second day as the cable cars had actually been shut down the previous day due to strong winds (not a rare occurrence). On the other hand, on the day we did go up it was abnormally hot, humid and still - not the best weather for a very steep, 3000' hike up a mountain.

Despite the excessive heat I was really glad we decided to walk and would certainly recommend that option for anyone traveling in the area. The views were breathtaking and we were once again overwhelmed with the variety and color of the plant life.

 The trail was unusual in that it was composed primarily of large boulders. Each and every step was an attempt to lift your legs high up to the next level. It was very much like setting a stair-stepper machine on maximum effort and pushing on for 2 1/2 hours.

As we got higher on the mountain the trail became narrower and the walls of the canyon we were in closed in tighter. We are nearing the top of the hike in the photo above.

 We saw a small variety of wildlife on our trek, including this unusual creature, left. The local name for this fellow is a "dassie". Officially it is a rock hyrax. It may resemble a rodent or an earless rabbit but its closest relative in the animal kingdom is, surprisingly, the elephant!

 We saw several colorful lizards such as the beautiful fellow sunning himself on a rock, above.

Yet another variety of starling - the red winged starling - came along to see if we had anything tasty to eat.

The final shot is from the top and looking south.

Once we rested up from our hike up the mountain we were able to buy a one-way ticket down on the cable car; a trip that took us less than a tenth of our time getting to the top…and a whole lot less effort!