Thursday 4th December 2025
As required we were waiting in the lobby at 0800hrs and met up with Wayne, our driver and guide for the day. It was a beautiful sunny, and more importantly a clear day for our adventure up the mountain.
The debate we had in the car was about the queues; do we just join it, or do we pay for a “fast-track” upgrade🤔🤔. The decision was classic, “wait and see”🤭🤭. When we arrived at the bottom of the cable car building, parking was relatively easy, suggesting not too many people, so we joined the end of the relatively short queue.
It wasn’t very long before we were over the road and into the building; good decision to “wait and see”!!!! In no time we were herded, albeit nicely, into the cable car, about 60 of us all trying to be by the window. The surprising feature of this rather large cable car is the moving floor. In the time it takes to head to the top, about 1,000 meters above Cape Town, the floor rotates 360degrees allowing everyone to get a complete panoramic view from all angles.
Table Mountain is advertised as one of the 7-wonders of the natural world, it has over 8,000 unique species of plants, apparently that’s more than there are in the U.K.!!!, it is also home to a unique furry mammal, a “Dassie” or “Rock Hyrax”, and today we saw one curled up on a rock just below us; lucky or what!! Wayne told us he normally has to show his clients a picture of one as they are not very forthcoming to show themselves off!! The flat top is about 3km long and the mountain is flanked by two smaller mountains “Lions Head & Signal Hill”. The latest version of the cable car was designed and built by the Swiss in 1997 but the original one first Opened in 1929
After a good circular walk around and taking in the breathtaking views, we headed back down, again the floor did a 360degree panoramic view; breathtaking. When leaving the cable car we were amazed, there was no queue!!!! Mind you it was very hot by now, maybe too hot for some!!! There are many trails to use and the foolhardy use them to climb to the top!!!
Back in the car we headed into town, parked and visited “St. George’s”, the Cape Town Cathedral. This is a relatively modern Victorian structure that superseded the original church opened in 1834 and converted to a cathedral in 1847. The first Anglican Bishop Robert Gray didn’t like it, he wanted something much more “grandiose” and his successor, William West agreed with him, so the current cathedral was built though neither of the two bishops lived to see it completed. The foundation stone was laid in 1901 by the future King, George V and completed in 1936! Certainly not a spectacular cathedral though it did have lots of interesting stain glass windows. The main point of interest; it is here where the ashes of Bishop Desmond Tuto have been laid to rest.
Wayne took us to a very old Methodist church where we had a coffee inside at a small cafe named “heaven”, unusual I suppose, but as he said it gets people into the building and raises funds!!! From there we wandered around a local market situated in the original fruit and vegetable area. The stalls here were all selling artistic wares; everything made locally in “cottage industries” and all out of re-cycled cans, vinyl records, old telephone cables; the list is endless. These people are real craftsmen.
We also had a quick stop in the district of Bo-Kaap where all the houses are painted in very bright colours, quite different from any house colours we’ve seen before!!! We also visited a Spice shop there, we’ve never seen so many spices in one place, and the aroma they produced was quite pungent.
Another very interesting stop was the old Methodist church, now a museum ( https://www.districtsix.co.za/about-the-district-six-museum/) in the 6th district of Cape Town. This old building was left standing after the demolition of this area in 1967 following the savage introduction of “Apartheid”. This area was inhabited solely by black and coloured people who were all “turfed out”, but by some curious “by-law”, religious establishments were exempt from demolition so the building stood empty in a “sea of rubble”. When Nelson Mandela was released, this building became a sort of shrine to commemorate the 30 odd years of Apartheid, and anybody who had historical connections with this area and if they had ‘photos or anything to donate to create the memory, they were asked to bring them. The internal walls around this building are covered with ‘photos, letters and newspapers from the time before; fascinating. We all know a bit about Apartheid, but visiting this museum really brought it home to me about the brutality of those laws and how it affects society in general. Tomorrow we head to Robben Island where I have no doubt we will learn even more.
Our tour ended at the botanical gardens, not my cup-of-tea, but Christine certainly enjoyed wandering around “part” of this 1,000 acre area, some of the plants here were quite unusual and unique to South Africa. Being at the foot of Table Mountain, this area is on a hill and the botanical designers have very cleverly fabricated a “treetop walk”; the actual walkway was fairly level but it went out from the mountain and as the ground fell away, it created this treetop walk; well thought out.
Between the stops we fitted in a quick snack for lunch adjacent to an old water mill and across the road from Newlands Brewery where the “Castle” brand of beer is brewed.
Wayne did us proud, all the while we were driving from one place to another he was giving us a running commentary about the city, the architecture, the history and the general way of life in a country of many “haves” but lots more “have nots”; we both learned a lot today about South Africa and the Cape Town area in Particular; thank you Wayne Milne for an excellent day and if I’m asked, I will certainly put your name forward and recommend you.
