Table Mountain

I seem to be one of few people who got a lot of sleep last night, although I did hear the vuvuzelas from the stadium across the street as the soccer game let out and the fans streamed the streets in front of our hotel. So I woke up this morning well rested, after getting eight hours – the most on this trip so far. It was a bright and beautifully sunny day! After a back and forth and back and forth and up and down between the lobby and the room and breakfast and Carmen's room and back to my room again, I found out that the cable car WAS in fact running, so I ran upstairs for a fourth time (really I took the elevator) and woke up Sean (who was passed out in last night's clothes) and changed my clothes for the third time and met Ben in the lobby (who had just completed a 5K) and we were off! With some help from Chrighton Dula, a friendly but racist cabbie.

The road actually goes halfway up the mountain until the part where earth gives way to stone. From there, we took a round cable car up to the top. The cable car had 360 degree windows and of course Sean suctioned his camera onto them. The view was stunning – we could see the whole cape bay area.

The top was not actually smooth flat. I had this notion for some reason that the mesa would be smooth like an actual table, like bowling lane smooth. No. It was flatish, but we walked along large rocks whose cracks were filled in with tiny plants. There were a lot of tourists on the top of the table, but it wasn't crowded. The air was perfect and it felt really good to walk around.

From the top, we could see all the places we had been this past week: our hotel, the stadium, the wharf, Cape Flats, Robben Island, the rocky cliff where we took our first jumping picture (and where I taught Dan how to plank), Cape of Good Hope, False Bay, and the white sand beach where we took our final jumping pictures. We could see the green and rocky peaks of Lion's Head and the Twelve Apostles on one side and the Atlantic and Indian Ocean further beyond. The weather was perfect. The sun was shining and we took a lot of panoramic pictures. It was kind of a relief to be without the big group and just make decisions between the three of us. It was really a fantastic morning with good company and a perfect way to end the trip.