Table Mountain

This shot was taken very early in the morning from Cape Town's docklands, as the sun rose over the horizon the other side of Table Mountain, highlighting the shape that gives the feature its name.

A cable car takes speedily takes visitors up and down the mountain, with a rotating floor to give everyone a full 360° view of the region on the way.

It's possible to absail from the top of the mountain down about 100m, but then have to walk back up.

The setting is great as the views from up there really are awesome.

Here's a short video of my absail and the amazing view.

(If you don't have broadband, it may be a bit slow.)

On my travels, I met many people who's job meant they worked all day every day out in some of the World's most scenic places.

The photo below captures this quite well, with Tim working on his laptop at his office over-looking Cape Town's Atlantic beaches.

Contenders in the Volvo Ocean Race could be seen from Table Mountain as they left Cape Town for Melbourne in the second leg of the round-the-world race.

Of course, the top of Table Mountain is quite flat, but rocky all the same.

The Table Mountain National Park covers an area extending down the Cape peninsula and is home to hundreds or thousands of plant species representing a few different climatic zones. (Sorry, I don't remember details.)

Here's a pretty flower near the highest point of the mountain, significant for some reason and named after some bloke famous for doing something here.

I saw this snake come out from under a parked car near the cable car station. It's just a baby.

Note: Three weeks after my visit, someone threw a cigarette out of a car in this area and consequently burnt the mountain, home to all this wildlife, and a few human homes as well.
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