Table Mountain

Long time, no post. The internet has been out at the lodge (a very contentious issue) so I haven't been able to really blog or go on social media for the past week or so. Any time that we do get internet is from going down to cafes and coffee shops, and with that time being precious it's been spent working on project research.

Our project has been moving along quite quickly, and it's difficult to believe that in just three short days we'll be meeting with the residents of Litha Park for the final time and presenting them with our final ideas and recommendations. There have definitely been some ups and downs to the project. To put it gently, living, working and playing in the same space, with the same people is trying. We all want the best for this community, but disagreements have ensued about what the "best" is and how to go about it. With no separation between work and home, there have been a couple of times where as a group we've needed to decide to take a two hour break where we all go off and do different things in different directions to cool off and recompose ourselves. Definitely not one of our brightest moments as a group, but it happens and we're working through it, getting more and more in sync every day. 

We're finally starting to see some nice weather in Cape Town. As I've probably mentioned earlier, the weather when we got here started off as cold, rainy, and awfully dreadful. With a few isolated exceptions the weather the past week and a half or so has been beautiful- sunny and 75. Today was the hottest it's been since I've been here- 82 degree. I would like to take this time to remind you that it is officially the dead of winter here. That is all. 

Taking advantage of the gorgeous weather and our incredible scenery, the five of us took a day last week to go up on top of Table Mountain. Table Mountain is arguably the most notable landmark in all of Cape Town with its staggering height and flat top. It is one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The top of the mountain is a roughly 3 kilometer plateau, and is home to insane amounts of flora, fauna and wildlife. The mountain is nearly 3/4 of a mile tall at its peak and is the tallest of the 4 main mountains in the heart of Cape Town. There are two ways to get up: hike or cable car. We were seriously tempted to hike, but on a time constraint (our housemates hiked it and it took 6 hours), we opted for the cable car. 

The view from the top is absolutely stunning. It's difficult to describe with words, but it's breathtaking. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but disclaimer: the pictures in no way capture even a smidgeon of what its actually like on top of the mountain. 

The view of Cape Town from the bottom of the mountain, where you get onto the cable car to go up. 

The view from the cable car, halfway up the mountain. 

A dussie! Dussies are indigenous creatures to Cape Town and the top of Table Mountain. While they look sort of like prairie dogs, in reality their closest related being is the African elephant. They're quite used to people at the mountain and will get really close when offered a snack. 

This mountain is Lion's Head, located immediately adjacent to Table Mountain. We actually hiked up to the tippy top this past Sunday. I'll post more information about that and pictures in my next post.