Discover South Africa's Best Diamonds Please support our advertisers who make this free guide possible. FREE Cape Town GATEWAY EDITION 17/18 Mariner’s Wharf GUIDES Table Mountain including the Aerial Cableway, Platteklip Gorge & Maclear’s Beacon Africa’s first harbourfront emporium • Restaurants • Wine & Liquor Shop • Bakery • Fishmarket • Sushi • Nautical Gifts & Curios Table Mountain Ten guilders and six bottles of wine went to the first sailor in a Dutch East India ship to sight Table Mountain on their long passage from Holland. Muizenberg False Bay Table Mountain National Park Table Mountain is one of the most recognizable mountains in the world, fossiliferous claystone and the top Van Spilbergen put in at what he mistakenly thought For the next 50 years, there was a 6 7 along with Mount Everest, the Matterhorn, Mount Fiji and the Sugar Loaf three formations all being quartz was Aguada de Saldanha, he applied the name to what lull in recreational climbing of the Cape Point EXPERIENCE A SPARKNATIONALLING TOUR PARKS • ART OF DIAMOND CUTTING Mountain of Rio de Janeiro. Yet Table Mountain is only just higher than sandstones. is now Saldanha Bay, 100 km up the west coast.) mountain. Then Carl Peter Thunberg, a • JEWELLERY MANUFACTURING • TANZANITE BOUTIQUE 1000 m – quite small in comparison with the mountain giants of the world. distinguished Swedish botanist, arrived Fountain Ravine. With few possessions • OFFERED IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES About 130 million years ago (at Variations in name also affected Devil’s Peak, Lion’s When one sees Table Mountain for the first time, however, all statistics fall on the scene. His association with but considerable resourcefulness, he CAPE TOWN • STELLENBOSCH • FRANSCHHOEK • O.R. TAMBO • NAMIBIA the time of the break-up of the Head and Signal Hill, as the Dutch and the English had away. Rising almost straight from the sea to a height of more than three Table Mountain, bearing in mind his survived in contentment. He obtained t h e d i a m o n dwo rk s @ t j d . c o . z a w w w. t h e d i a m o n dwo rk s . c o . z a supercontinent Gondwana), a great their own names for these. (See the relevant Gateway times that of the Eiffel Tower, ending in a virtually flat-topped mesa, flanked interest in plants and the wealth of its change took place – the mountain Guides for further details.) Two Englishmen made a meat by throwing stones at his prey The Aerial Cableway dramatically by Devil’s Peak (1000 m) on the left and Lion’s Head (670 m) flora (much of it as yet undiscovered or rose out of the water in successive loose attempt to claim Table Bay for King James in 1620, (buck and dassies) and knocking them on the right, this sight is magnificent evidence of nature in all her splendour. undocumented) was like a match made Walk up Platteklip Gorge periods of simultaneous upliftment but nothing came of this and it was left to the Dutch off precipices; the skins became clothing WELL WORTH But nature does not stop here – she sites the mountain in the middle of the in heaven. He made 15 ascents of the and erosion. Erosion finally isolated to take the history of the Cape a giant step forward as his normal attire did not last long in THE VISIT ! Walk to Maclear’s Beacon richest floral kingdom in the world and then goes a step further by placing it mountain; he slept on the summit, as Table Mountain from the rest of when Jan van Riebeeck arrived in 1652 to establish a the rugged terrain. The meat was cut at the end of the continent, on the tip of Africa. De Graaff did, and he was the first to the Cape mountain system. A few refreshment station. into strips, dried and then boiled and Three short walks along the top mention a number of routes to the Hout Bay Harbour Table Mountain looks particularly dramatic when it has white clouds rolling million years after this, we find Table eaten with a home-made sauce. Besides Rent a classic Backdraft Cobra and summit – prior to this, Platteklip was the experience Cape point, Chapmans Peak drive 021 7901100 over it as often happens when the south-easterly wind blows. (This wind is Mountain as we see it today and, in The settlers and the mountain eating wild honey he incorporated it History • Geography only route used. In 1773, accompanied and the Winelands known as the ‘Cape doctor’ because it disperses pollution and smog over the a few million years from now, this In 1652 Jan van Riebeeck stepped ashore at Table Bay, into a fermented drink with pounded www.marinerswharf.com by a few companions, he made the Flora • Fauna city.) These clouds are in fact formed by condensation when the moisture- great mountain will probably be no marking the first time in South African history when the roots. However it was not always utopia, first recorded traverse of the mountain, laden air rises and makes contact with colder air. The clouds dissipate as they more, due to the force that shaped visitor became a settler. On 26 September 1652 Van as he reported that he had some close starting up Platteklip Gorge, then Experience the best of the Cape from the seat of a Cobra roll down the front of the mountain and meet warmer air. There is, however, it, erosion. Riebeeck completed a climb of Table Mountain with 10 encounters with ‘wolves’ which must An early cableway used in the Sunset at the upper cableway station descending the ridges and valleys that a far less scientific story about the formation of the clouds. The legend of other people, one of whom was ‘Herri,’ a Hottentot (a have been hyenas. Penny kept an eye Drive a Cobra Today! Table Mountain makes up a portion construction of the reservoirs on top of Table Mountain. make up the Back Table. He continued how Table Mountain got its tablecloth concerns a Dutchman, Van Hunks, derogatory name given to the indigenous clans by the on the ships in Table Bay for a safe time 063 345 3344 of the Cape Peninsula mountain in the late 1800s down to Constantia Nek, known then as Baviaans Kloof. who used to sit smoking his pipe on the saddle between Devil’s Peak and Dutch at that time) who made the first recorded ascent of the mountain by to return to normal life, but there were chain. The actual table is 2 km long To finish their epic excursion, they walked down to Table Mountain. One day a stranger approached him and challenged him a non-European of African descent. On reaching the summit, they lit a large A chain handrail is provided on the steep always British ships at anchor. One day with an average width of 300 m. Its highest point is at Maclear’s Beacon Hout Bay. to a smoking contest. When the stranger finally collapsed, his hat fell off to fire (not encouraged by SANParks today!) to let the small settlement below section when descending into the little there was only one ship in the bay. Penny (1084 m). This section is divided into the Western Table, Central Table and reveal the devil’s horns. In the meantime the vast quantity of smoke they had know of their achievement. The next person to enrich the history of Table Mountain was valley at the top of Platteklip Gorge. stealthily managed to leave his home Eastern Table. To the south the mountain drops by 300 m to the Back Table. produced had blown across Table Mountain, looking like a cloth laid on its Lady Anne Barnard, who was the first European woman to on the mountain and secure himself a This area is made up of valleys and ridges and is home to a number of dams. There are a number of documents giving details of these early explorations top and adding to its spectacular visual impact. climb it, in 1797, the year she arrived in the Cape. There was no more fitting position as a crew member on this Danish ship only to learn that the Sceptre Two ridges jut out from this section. The first is on the right, looking south; to the summit of Table Mountain. Several difficulties are referred to in all person to claim this distinction. She was the wife of the Secretary of the had sunk in a storm two weeks after his desertion! this is the Twelve Apostles, once named Gable Mountains by the Dutch. This accounts: toil, heat, wind, endlessly fighting through bush and being Colony and the official hostess of the Governor, Lord Macartney, as his wife www.cobraexperience.co.za ridge ends at Llandudno Corner. The other shorter ridge, on the southern impeded by small and large rocks. In all fairness, a walk from the seashore There are other stories of people living on the mountain such as ‘Blinkwater to the top is a long way. Today, this walk starts from Tafelberg Road which did not accompany him to the Cape. She had a lively mind, and through Johnny’ who lived there for 25 years. During WWI a family lived hidden for suburbs side, drops down and ends at Constantia Nek. www.cobraexperience.co.za gives one a 400 m height advantage and the early explorers of the Table her letters, diaries, sketches and paintings, we are given a profound insight over 12 years – they secreted their brass bed on the mountain and two The coming of man did not have the well-made paths to into details of life in the Cape at the time.