Had to check out today. This meant packing all the bags and emptying the cage under the bunk. If you're not leaving until later you're able to keep your excess baggage in a locked room until you return. You're even allowed to use the showers etc. Received my R70 I'd left as deposit for the padlock and bunk tag.
Managed a more leisurely breakfast this morning as there was no deadline. I had decided to try and get up on top of Table Mountain as it is the thing to do when in Cape Town. Lots of other stuff you don't have to do but a visit up Table Mountain is a must. I didn't have enough time and didn't feel up to walking to the top so phoned for taxi from Ashanti. This was using Rikkis cabs which charge by the person and use the London style of cab. It only cost R19 to get the cable car for Table Mountain. Pretty cheap I thought.
There didn't appear to be too much of a queue as I bought my ticket, but this changed as soon as we got up in the lift to the embarkation level. Completely uncontrolled. It was obvious some people were getting upset about it as more and more people came out of the lifts and joined the middle of the queue. To be honest it would've been difficult for them to get to the back of the queue anyway as it went right back to the balcony.
The gondolas are used to cart everything to the mountain top. No roads to the top then. All the workers must go up and down as well. There are two embarkation areas, to the left and right obviously.
Once on board, the ride takes approximately 7mins. As is usual with this type of ride there was a rush to be at the windows for the best view all the way up. The makers of these gondolas had thought of that, and the floor actually rotates as it rises. Very fair.
When we got to the top it actually took a little while as there were plenty of people on the top. I think that plenty of local people come up to the top at the weekends as well. There was the obvious tourist shops which weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. T-shirts were expensive and none in my size as usual.
Being 1086m above MSL, the temperature was obviously cooler than lower down which made a nice change. Some people were walking around all wrapped up for a Dartmoor winters day. Locals probably. There was plenty of cloud in evidence but this was expected.
There were a number of walks shown on the little leaflet you get with the ticket and I decided on the middle one due to time constraints to be back at the airport in time for the flight back to Johannesburg. The path didn't seem to be well marked, and I also went in the opposite direction to most others. Was a wise decision as the cloud started off bad with visibility sometimes down to 10's of feet, but as I went anti-clockwise round the top, the conditions got clearer and clearer. The path wasn't clearly marked in my opinion. I just had to stick to the bits which had concrete in it. Very little in the way of posts or rails etc. Once on the Northern side of the plateau the conditions got clearer and I paused at a number of stations and took lots of shots to try and make a panorama when I get back home with more computing power etc.
Before heading down again I sent a number of postcards from the top. Had to buy another expensive/cheap pen as I'd left the others in J'burg. I could've waited until later but wanted to get them stamped from the top.
Getting back off the mountain seemed to be a little more crowded than coming up. I guess this might be because of all the brave souls who had walked up instead of being lazy like me. In the queue I found a booth which took free pictures to show you'd been there, done that!
At the bottom I tried to call for Rikki's again but they said they didn't have anybody in the area so I'd have to find my own way down to the hostel. I didn't feel like getting ripped off by a metered taxi. I eventually went and asked at one of these mini-bus affairs. They generally wait until enough people turn up to make it worth their while. Initially I was quoted R40 but then this was dropped to R20. As it was only R1 more than getting there I thought that was okay. I waited a little longer than anticipated but still had a bit of time in hand. Once enough people were on-board (4/20) we set off.
Got to Ashanti and had some lunch before setting off in the hostel mini-bus. The cost was R100. It was only a few Rand dearer than using other methods but it did mean I was going door to door. There was only one other passenger. A German who had brought down 4 containers worth of used bikes from a German bike company as part of a project in a local area.
It was at this point I probably lost my Maui Jim sunglasses. Bugger. Didn't realise until getting off the plane in Johannesburg.
Flew back with BA to J'burg. Had a simple supper with Rich's family. Caught up on blog. Bed by 11pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment