Text Box: Home page

About 12 hours later, at 8am on Saturday morning, we saw our first glimpse of Africa. Adventures by Disney (AbD) picked us up at the airport and took us to the Westin Cape Town Convention Square. Our driver told us to go to Table Mountain since it was so nice outside, and our AbD guide, Craig, told us the same over the phone. So we did!

Sunday was our check-in with AbD. We left the Westin and checked in at the Southern Sun Waterfront Cape Town, where we met our AbD team. Since most people were still traveling that day, we had the day free, and since it was rainy, we went to an aquarium and on a tour bus.

Days 3&4—Cape Town

Flying into the airport, we saw the city at the base of Table Mountain on the left, and Lion’s Head on the right

The Westin, Room 609

The highest point on Table Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau at about 3,500 feet above sea level, which gave us a wonderful view of the city and Table Bay Harbour. Both the Westin and the Southern Sun were down where the arrow points.

The cableway was officially opened in 1929, but in 1997 it was extensively upgraded, and new cars were introduced carrying 65 passengers. The cars rotate through 360 degrees, giving a panoramic view over the city.

The Rock Hyrax, or Dassie, is one of the four living species of the order Hyracoidea, and the only living species in the genus Procavia. It is a medium-sized terrestrial mammal, superficially resembling a guinea pig with short ears and tail. The closest living relatives to hyraxes are the modern day elephants and sirenians.

Near the café at the top of the cableway, I heard a ruckus and looked over and saw David Hasselhoff pointing to where he went shark diving once. People took his picture and he even took one couple’s camera and took their photo.

Aside from the dassie, we did see some spectacular hummingbirds, which I’m pointing out in the tree above

Despite a lot of traveling and a long day on the mountain, we managed to get to the Waterfront for dinner, staying up as late as we could before we went to bed

Before checking out, we enjoyed our free breakfast in the executive level of the Westin, where we got a wonderful view of a wet Cape Town and the traffic that was on the wrong side of the road

The Southern Sun Waterfront Cape Town, Room 462, where we learned on our first night that the beds were too small for two people

We went to the Two Oceans Aquarium, where we: (clockwise from left) stuck our head up through some Nemos, saw a number of eel, watched African penguins get fed, marveled at butterflyfish, cringed at a shark, saw some funky things, and felt like eating lobster

After we left the aquarium, we jumped on a double decker city tour bus. Because it was raining off and on, the bus was very empty, so we grabbed the top front that was protected. At Table Mountain, we were in the fog, and what was an extremely busy area yesterday was abandoned today. We thought the fog gave the area an extremely interesting picture.

We got off the bus at the beach at Camps Bay on the other side of Table Mountain, where we climbed around some rock formations and watched the seagulls fight the rough Atlantic

Driving along the shore, we saw some of the wealthier areas of Cape Town, where the wind affected the shape of trees and where a Green Point Lighthouse once guided ships safely to harbour

We ate at the Waterfront mall at a restaurant that was crazy busy the day before. We tried the Japanese platter, which contained some delicious sushi, etomame, salmon, shrimp, and some delicious chicken

Table Mountain has an unusually rich biodiversity. Its vegetation consists predominantly of several different types of the unique and rich Cape Fynbos. The mountain's vegetation types form part of the Cape Floral Region protected areas, the smallest of the six floral regions in the world. An estimated 2,200 species of plants are confined to Table Mountain - more than exist in all of the United Kingdom. Many of these species, including a great many types of proteas, are endemic to the mountain and can be found nowhere else. We just thought the plants were pretty, and so we climbed all over the plateau to get the best views and to soak up the beautiful northern sun!