Table Mountain

This breathtaking mountain in Cape Town has long been appreciated; it possesses a level of beauty that invites all varieties of guests to journey up and take a seat at the table.

The local Khoi people were the first to explore the mountain, and long referred to it as “The Mountain in the Sea,” or Hoerikwaggo (also the name of folklore’s half-human, half-animal creature said to guard the range).

The first European known to have climbed South Africa’s iconic Table Mountain was a Portuguese sailor, António de Saldanha, in 1503. He didn’t climb it for its beauty; he simply had no idea where he was. Climbing this flat-topped, table-shaped mountain would help him get his bearings, he reckoned.

The first recorded ascent by a woman was Lady Anne Barnard’s, a lively Scottish dame known for swimming nude in the town fountain. For the climb, she dressed in her husband’s clothes, tied her shoes with tape, and demanded that a bottle of port await her at the top.

Years later, a man named James Holman rode up on a horse—a feat made more remarkable because Holman was blind. Dear friends rode beside him, describing the scenery.

Joshua Penny, an American sailor seeking to escape the Royal Navy, arrived in Cape Town and fled into the mountain, where he lived for fourteen months off wild honey and dassies—small, rabbit-size mammals that populate the mountain. (Bizarrely, and entirely without relevance, they are the closest living relatives to elephants.) Penny eventually returned, clad entirely in animal pelts, and boarded a lone ship in the bay. He was met by a baffled captain, who asked, “What are you?! Man or beast?”

Today, you can consider a journey on Table Mountain’s Aerial Cableway. Riding it provides panoramic views of Cape Town, the vast Atlantic, and surrounding landscapes. The gondolas are specially designed to rotate, offering a 360-degree viewing experience for passengers. Many make the journey hoping to see the mountain’s “tablecloth” effect. When moist wind blows in from the ocean and rises along the slopes, it chills out, creating the marvelous cotton-candy clouds that often drape over the peak.