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South Africa

Photo Story: South Africa

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The Western Cape province
The Western Cape province

The old Cape Province is full of scenery, prehistoric landscapes, nature reserves – and wine trails.

The Apostles and the Table

On the Atlantic side, the Twelve Apostles march southward through the Cape Peninsula.

The Apostles
The Apostles

The flat top of Table Mountain, the landmark flat-topped rock that plateaus at over 1,000 m elevation, lifts warm south-easterly airs into colder elevations where their moisture condenses into the “table cloth”. The cloth drapes and sometimes smothers the mountain entirely.

Table Cloth
Table Cloth

City planners have kept development off the elevated areas, and viewed from the surrounding peaks such as Signal Hill, Cape Town remains settled like a viscous liquid on the plains.

Cape Town
Cape Town

Table Mountain National Park, which encompasses the namesake rock, buttresses Cape Town to the south before the African continent dwindles toward the Cape.

Table Mountain side
Table Mountain side

All vantage points command a high view of the surrounding coastline, valleys, and towns.

Table Mountain summit
Table Mountain summit

Parts of the rock are overrun with rock hyraxes – the world’s cutest mammal. Hyraxes look like rodents, but are evolutionarily distinct. South Africans call them dassies.

Rock hyraxes
Rock hyraxes

The view here is of Bakoven, one of Cape Town’s elite seaside suburbs.

Bakoven
Bakoven

The peak to the left of the City Bowl is Lion’s Head, some 670 m above sea level. The rest of the green ridge running north is Signal Hill, featured above, once known by the Dutch as Leeuwen Staart (Lion’s Tail).

Out in Table Bay is Robben Island, home of the Apartheid era prison which held Nelson Mandela for 18 years.

City Bowl
City Bowl

Table Mountain forms the northern extremity of a sandstone mountain range that runs to the Cape Point.

Sandstone
Sandstone

These dassies look south to sea from the Cape of Good Hope.

Furry friends
Furry friends