Cape Town Fog

Unlike Sandberg's dainty fog that “comes in on little cat feet”, Cape Town fog rushes in assertively on lion's paws, sometimes totally obliterating Table Mountain … and even the boats next to us. We've not experienced such dense fog as this since we were sailing in northern Maine and maritime Canada where the “pea soup” fog can become nearly claustrophobic. We've seen fog banks move toward us and have been totally enveloped in a matter of minutes and then clear just as quickly.

Here in Cape Town, the fog that rolls in off the Atlantic is sudden, heavy and wet. At night, we pop our heads out of the cockpit and it's totally silent, all sound seemingly gobbled up by the mist. We half expect Sam Spade to step out of a film noir flick with his London Fog collar flipped up and disappear down the dock.  Lights are hazy and distorted, creating an eerie, other-worldly atmosphere.

The flat top of Table Mountain seems to attract heavy fog. Cape Towners call it the tablecloth. When a warm air mass meets the base of the mountain, it is forced upward by the rising topography and cools quickly. Moisture condenses and forms what is known as an orographic cloud, the heavy fog and mist we see. The fog swirls and billows as it climbs over the mountaintop, hence the term “tablecloth”.

In native African legend, Table Mountain is sacred and often seen as covered in clouds. It was known as “Mountain of the sea” to native people and “Veiled in clouds” to the Khoi and San people. One more modern legend has it that Captain Jan van Hunks, a Dutch pirate and sea captain settled here in the 1700s and frequently liked to smoke his pipe on the slopes of Table Mountain. One day when van Hunks went to his favorite smoking place, a man dressed in black was sitting in his spot. The two men subsequently entered into a smoking contest and so much smoke was emitted from the two, that the entire mountaintop was enveloped. The man in black was the devil and whenever the tablecloth is in place, Van Hunks and the devil are engaging in another smoking contest.

The tablecloth and fog do make for vivid photography at times. I ran across two photos that were absolutely superb and I wanted to share them with you. One is by Aneila Loubser entitled Fog in Cape Town.

Another is a photo taken by Brendon Wainwright,  Table Mountain from Lions Head.

For more Cape Town fog pix, the Life of Mike blogsite is excellent.

On Top of Table Mountain

We climbed to the top of Table Mountain the other day. We did it last time we were here, too. It's just too spectacular to miss. Many times, the top of the mountain is covered with a shroud of clouds. Locals call it the tablecloth. We've watched clouds move in swiftly, flowing and swirling over the top like “billowing fabric” as the visitor's brochure proclaims. For some visitors, it's hard to tell if it's going to be clear on the mountain or not. For us, we just stick our heads out of the cockpit. And, yes, the wind has finally calmed down … for the moment anyway.

Getting to Table Mountain via car is a trial. There's limited parking and so visitors park along the side of the narrow, winding Tafelberg Road. Even the views from our parking spot were grand.

Though we arrived fairly early in the morning, it was still a 30 minute hike up the steep road from our parking place to the ticket queue. There were two lines … the “already had your ticket purchased on-line” line and the “buy your ticket today, you stupid people, you!” line. We were in the stupid people line, but it seemed to be moving pretty much as quickly as the other line … until two buses arrived with smart people. There were sun awnings and cool, overhead misters along the way, so the 45 minute wait wasn't as traumatic or hot as it could have been.

We finally made it to the ticket office and then entered another queue.  I say “climbed”, but I really mean “ascended” Table Mountain via an aerial cable car. It is possible to actually climb the mountain via a long trail, and last time we were here, we used this trail to descend from the top. This time, however, we opted to do a round trip on the cable car. It takes 65 passengers at a time up the vertical face of the mountain and deposits them on Table Mountain's flat top. The cars are round, designed to be aerodynamic and the floor rotates which provides a 360º view for every passenger (unless you're scrunched in the middle and short). The 5-minute ride to the 3,539' (1089m) summit is pretty dramatic.

Table Mountain, a result of volcanic and glacial activity 520 million years ago, is comprised of granite and sandstone and they claim it might be one of the oldest mountains in the world. Hmm.  The top is a fairly level plateau about 2 miles (3km) wide with outstanding views of the city, Table Bay, local geographic features like Lions Head and Robben Island and the coastline for miles and miles.

The first recorded ascent of Table Mountain was by the Portuguese explorer, Antonio de Saldanha in 1503, who named the mountain Taboa da caba ("table of the cape").  Of course, the native Khoi inhabitants had been familiar with the mountain for millennia. Today, the two cable cars can transport 800 people an hour. Over 23 million people have explored the top since the cable cars first opened in 1929. In 2011, Table Mountain was named one of the new Seven Wonders of Nature.

There are three easy walks on the mountaintop and we walked all three.

The top is boulder-strewn with impressive cliffs along the edge.

It's autumn here and not the best season for flora. There were only a few wildflowers in bloom. Unfortunately, the national flower, the protea, was just beginning to bloom, but we took what we got. We did, however, see lots of lizards sunning themselves on rocks, some butterflies and lots of dassies (rock hyrax).

By afternoon, the morning haze had cleared and it was such a clear day, we could even see Nine of Cups in her berth at the Royal Cape Yacht Club which reminded us that it was time to get some chores done.

Tomorrow morning, we plan to visit Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden at the base of Table Mountain. Want to join us for a stroll?