Cape Town – Table Mountain, Blaubergstrand & Woodstock

This post is part of a series called Southern Africa - 2017

My last day in Cape Town and, finally, blue skies and minimal wind. Table Mountain was open!

The Table Mountain Cable Car has 2 cars that rotate 360° so that on the way up (or down) you get to see all of the spectacular view.

From the top, the clouds were creeping over the edge, like smoke from dry ice. To the locals, this wispy layer of clouds that often covers the top is the “table cloth”. Legend has it (the South Africans have a lot of legends) that a retired Dutch pirate was sitting in his favourite spot one day smoking his pipe. A stranger appeared and challenged him to a pipe smoking contest, which, of course, he accepted. (No self respecting pirate, retired or not, could refuse such a challenge) After a long day (or days) of vigorous smoking, a large cloud of smoke enveloped them and Table Mountain. As the unsuspecting pirate won the competition, he realized the stranger was the devil. The devil was upset at being beaten and the 2 men vanished, leaving behind only the cloud of smoke covering Table Mountain.

Sweeping view from the top of Table Mountain

Being lazy, I took a picture of this information placard. Very interesting and worth repeating, but because I have a picture, I don’t need to!

Looking down on Lion’s Head from the top of Table Mountain

Lion’s Head and the Table Mountain Cable Car Station

Then we moved on to Signal Hill, to get photos of Table Mountain. That little box you see at the top is the Cable Car entrance.

Liza had suggested we go to Bloubergstrand for great views of Cape Town and Table Mountain and we still had a lot of time before we had to be at the airport. Blouberg is Afrikaan for “Blue Mountain” and strand is “Beach”. It’s a beach side suburb of Cape Town that really does offer great views. The many kite boarders were a bonus.

You can see the city of Cape Town nestled at the base of Table Mountain.

Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town

These kite boarders have done this before

The last thing we wanted to photograph in Cape Town was some of the graffiti in the Woodstock area. This one is my favourite…

Especially with Table Mountain in the background…

Some others…

I can’t pretend to know what this artist was thinking, but this particular piece of graffiti definitely makes you go hmmmm?? A white man with a rhino head, on a treadmill, holding a diamond in his hand; all sitting in the palm of the black man while they look on, helplessly perhaps?