Table Mountain Café (and how we got there)

by Tara-Zee

So, this one time, Tilly, Mr T-Z and I were in Cape Town for a few days of work followed by more days of holiday. Cape Town is special to me and Mr T-Z – we spent two weeks on honeymoon travelling around the Western Cape and we always enjoy going back there together and being there with friends.

Weeks (possibly even months) before the three of us had even left the comforts of Jozi, the itinerary had been planned to the last detail (you see, we’re all a little fanatical when it comes to planning trips – in fact, I may be the least prepared, and I’m the Virgo!). Things went better than according to plan. On the designated day, we woke up by 6:30, had a quick breakfast and headed to a convenience store where Mr T-Z stocked up on water, energy drinks and loads of chocolates and snacks to share, in case we were stranded in bad weather conditions (it happens).

We arrived at the start of our hike (the Platteklip Gorge route, which starts at the lower cable station) as the sun was rising over Cape Town. It was one of those moments where you hold your breath and try to take lots of pictures so that you can capture it for always (well, that was what I was doing; Tilly and Mr T-Z wanted to start tackling the mountain – and for me to give the camera a break).

We climbed that mountain. And for some reason I couldn’t get the soundtrack from The Sound of Music out of my head, especially when I spotted what I thought was a ferocious wild animal, which turned out to be a mountain goat (“Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo”). There was a moment when Tilly and I fretted (when Mr T-Z lost his footing and we thought that we’d lose the most level-headed of the three of us … and all those snacks), and there were a few times when we sat down to admire the view (and recover from the giant steps we needed to take to cover distance).

But nothing beat that feeling as we reached the top and were able to admire the spectacular view of Cape Town. Well, nothing except for the breakfast at the Table Mountain Cafe. I enjoyed the options available for the breakfast buffet (charged per 100 g, which I like) – pity that the queue to pay meant that our food was lukewarm by the time we got to our table outside … and that which was still warm soon went cold in the breeze. We quickly gobbled down our mushrooms, mince, flame-grilled boerewors, Spanish omelettes, grilled tomato and toast; we had to before the birds stole it. As far as settings go, this was a good one (especially on a Friday morning when everyone else you know is at work!).

FYI – there is alcohol available at the restaurant, but even we couldn’t stomach any after our three-and-a-bit hours of hiking. And anyway, there was a better way to reward ourselves: the cable-car ride down (which took mere minutes after our long hike up!).