Meeting Table Mountain

It is a testament to the whirlwind of these 20 days that I am only now sitting down to give an update of my "first few days" in Cape Town. In all fairness, I just recently gained regular access to Internet, as we moved into our housing for the semester about 10 days ago. I am living in a four-person apartment in a University of Cape Town residence hall, with one American roommate and two local students. One of my African roommates has yet to move in, but the other, Kwo, is from Zimbabwe and seems to be very cool.

I never really got time to settle in, however, as I just returned from an 8-day travel break, during which I jumped in a minibus for a road trip down South Africa's famed Garden Route. The road trip was pretty spectacular and necessitates a post all to itself, so I'll save that for later. For now, I would like to introduce you to Table Mountain.

Table Mountain is an imposing presence around here. It seems to never go out of view, no matter where you are around the city. I, in an uncharacteristic display of navigational savvy, have learned to discern my general location by a quick glance at its peaks. Devil's Peak, to the east, is the pinnacle closest to University of Cape Town's campus. Lion's Head, to the west, borders the Cape Malay community.

My first real encounter with Table Mountain came the very first day I arrived. While our peers were napping, a couple of friends and I thought the best way to fight off jetlag would be a nice brisk hike to the bottom of Devil's Peak. Not being very experienced in the area of mountainous hiking, I expected it to be kind of a cinch. Little did I know I would be expected to complete the 2,500-foot hike in a little over an hour. I did it, but with the high winds (Cape Town is ALWAYS windy) and the beating sun, I was less than the picture of beauty when we finally reached the base of the peak. Cape Town was, though.

The Cecil Rhodes Memorial halfway up the peak

The view [almost] from the top

The next night I finally got to conquer Table Mountain, but not without a little help. Our study abroad director treated us to a dinner on top of the plateau, complete with the famed cable car ride to the top, and a little advice to the romantics ("You wait until it is sunset, and then you say, 'You are the light of my life!' as soon as the lights in the city come on."). There are very few words to describe how spectacular it was. Though I barely knew the people in my program, we scrambled all over the rocks, giddily shouting to one another to check out yet another fantastic vantage point. Table Mountain had certainly delivered.

What resembled a "cloud waterfall," but is called the "tablecloth," the blanket of clouds rolling off the plateau