Table Mountain

24 January – Thursday

Table Mountain was covered in cloud when we visited.  We rode the cable car ride to the top, hoping that the cloud might shift during the morning.  It didn’t and it’s odd walking about on a cloudy mountain.   They call it the Table Cloth on days like this.  There should be many different flowers and plants to look at small furry animals called dassies – described as being about the size of a rabbit with small ears and, bizarrely, very closely related to the elephant. We nearly saw a dassie.  Someone  cried, “Look, a dassie” and pointed, so it hid  under the nearest rock before we could see it.   

We wandered through the cloud for a while and then went for a coffee.  I was just thinking that the  big white man beside me at the till reminded me of a large ape when he ordered,  “2 coffees and 2 BANANAS”. 

A very old woman seated on a bench outside was updating her younger male companion with a rather tragic family history.

“Well, John Mark he married Chloe. But he died – had cancer.  They had two boys.  Do you remember Susan  – she tried to commit suicide.  She thought her husband was seeing another woman”

“Not Harold?”

“Yes, Harold.  And Nigel – he was the head boy but he died at 54 with a coronary.  And Samuel drowned.  Peter – he married Lydia but they got divorced, but he has been very happy with his second wife – German you know.”

We lunched very well on fish at Camps Bay in the Pepper Club overlooking the sea and then finished the day with some shopping in Cape Town at the Water Front centre. 

Incidentally, I have discovered that Jenny, like Mike, is also prone to arguments with SatNavs.  I overheard her cry out, "You silly woman" as the beautifully spoken SatNav lady tried to direct us.  It could be a family trait.