Weekly Photo Challenge: Descent

Table Mountain, the iconic flat-topped mountain towering 3,558 feet above Cape Town, South Africa, literally begs to be seen from above.  Some climb.  Others (some 23 million people to date) have ascended via Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, a rotating lift that affords breathtaking scenes both going up and coming down.

Mountain climber on Table Mountain

A climber at rest, some 3000 feet above Cape Town, South Africa.

The view from the top is no less than spectacular, as you would imagine it would be — or at least it is if fog hasn’t “socked it in,”  blocking the scenery of the city below.

View of Cape Town from Table Mountain

Looking out at Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain

But it’s the descent that brings you back to earth.  A slow, crowd-quiet descent that follows the spectacle left behind — one of the New7Wonders of Nature — and a peak to which you may never be so fortunate to return to again.  The descent from Table Mountain literally and figuratively took our breath away. We had indeed been to the mountain top!

Descent from Table Mountain

Descent via Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

For more entries in the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Descent, travel here.

For more information:

New7Wonders of Naturehttp://www.tablemountain.net/content/page/new7wonders-of-nature

Table Mountain Aerial Cablewayhttp://www.tablemountain.net/

Cape Town: Official Tourism Website: http://www.capetown.travel/attractions/entry/table_mountain_cableway

For more on our travels in South Africa, click on the Page called Lesotho and South Africa.

11 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Descent

      1. Image Earth Travel

        Ha, ha even hitched for 3 weeks around SA but I did that part of the journey with another traveller. It was a lot harder to travel back in those days than today.

        Many stories to tell and one day I’ll get all my travel journals online. 😉

  1. Curt Mekemson

    We are in the first phases of planning a trip to South Africa and surrounding countries. It is probably two years off, but we are looking forward to it. Table Mountain looks like something we should include. –Curt

    1. Oh, the Places We See

      Table Mountain is a must-see if you go to Cape Town. But also you need to plan time to go to the Cape of Good Hope. Both wonderful! I’m hoping to write more about South Africa in December. Join us as we relive our journey — it was one of my favorite all-time trips. Best wishes for planning a successful one for you.

  2. lexklein

    I know your theme here is descent, but wasn’t the ascent tough?! Much longer and harder than I expected. Glad I did it, though! Nice to see your photos and be reminded of this lovely place.

    1. Oh, the Places We See

      The ascent was actually quite pleasant. Because the cable car rotates, no one gets stuck staring at the mountain. You have view from all around. We were so fascinated, we didn’t even think about the time it took. Glad you liked the place, too. We’ll never forget our trip there.

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