Cape Town - Table Mountain

I woke early to make sure I would see our arrival into Cape Town and went up on deck at 6.30am. It was a beautiful cloudless morning with the sun still well below the horizon.

Cape Town at sunrise

Several of the expedition crew were out on deck with me.We had wonderful views of Table Mountain and the lights of Cape Town, as we sailed along the coast towards the port.

Sunrise

Table Mountain, as a backdrop to a city, has to be one of the finest anywhere in the world.

Table Mountain at sunrise

Cape Town

After spending more than half an hour on deck, I went back down to the cabin and while I was looking out of the cabin window, I thought I saw the fin of a whale! Shortly after, Stefan made an announcement that there were whales around the ship! There was a mad scramble to get on deck to see our first whales in nearly five thousand miles of sailing!

There was quite a large pod of humpback whales swimming slowly along the coast in the opposite direction to the ship. We had one or two great photo opportunities, as the whales lifted their tails high above the water before diving.

Humpback Tail

Shortly after our encounter with the whales, the port pilot boat pulled alongside the ship to transfer the pilot on board to guide us to our berth.

Pilot boat transferring the pilot to Silver Explorer

It didn't take us long to reach our berth, which was the bunkering quay. We watched as the hoses were attached to the ship and they started to pump the marine oil into the ship's tank.

The South African immigration officers came on board, so that we could clear customs and go ashore.

We had an opportunity to say goodbye to Sean and Marina, who were leaving straight away to travel to their house in Kenya, where they would be spending their leave.

Silversea had arranged shuttle buses to take passengers to and from the ship to the waterfront area of Cape Town. As the weather was so good and there appeared to be no clouds over Table Mountain, we wanted to get to the cable-car as quickly as possible, so we took the first available bus to the waterfront and then caught a taxi to the cable-car terminal.

The World Cup football stadium on the way to the cable-car

Lion's Head Mountain from the cable-car terminal

We had a short wait at the terminal before we caught the cable-car to the top of the mountain. It was wonderfully clear, with little wind at the top, and we had unrestricted views in all directions.

Cape Town from Table Mountain

Lion's Head Mountain

We had marvellous views of the port and watched Silver Explorer moving from the bunkering quay to its assigned berth.

Silver Explorer moving berth

While we were at the top, there were quite a few white-necked ravens, which appeared to be very tame. Two were wheeling above us, flying on the thermals. They appeared at times to be joined together.

White-necked raven

Two ravens flying in formation on the thermals

We spent a couple of hours walking the trails, looking at the plants and admiring the views across to the Twelve Apostles.

Intrepid explorer??

Another view of Cape Town

Looking south towards the Twelve Apostles

In the distance, we could see infamous Robben Island, renowned as the prison that held Nelson Mandela for so many years.

Robben Island

In the park, there was a 360 degree signpost which had the distances to various points all over the world. This one showed that we were 1761 miles from Tristan da Cunha.

We stopped for a coffee at the cafe near to the cable-car terminal and then took the cable-car back down. The wind had really started to blow. Was this the Cape Doctor? At the bottom, we noticed that there was a sign saying the cable-car was suspended owing to high winds, so how right we were to take the first opportunity we had to go straight to the top of the mountain!

We took a taxi back to the ship's new mooring-place in the port. We had to walk through warehouses to get to the quay. Not a very beautiful spot at all!!

We met up with some of the others who had taken the trip to Robben Island and then we had dinner with Rob and Gayle, followed by drinks in the bar.

We went to bed well-satisfied with our first day in Cape Town. Tomorrow we take a coach ride to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, both places we visited when we were here in 2005.

Distance travelled in final 36 hours: 476NM
Total distance travelled from Ushuaia to Cape Town:  4492.5 Nautical Miles