Jeff was visiting Cape Town with his old 86-year-old wife; he too was no spring chicken. At his old age, Jeff wanted to see everything before his 90th birthday. He chooses to go to South Africa with his wife because they thought they could see all the wild-life on a 29-day overland tour. Cape Town was the first stop where the group would meet at night. Thirty of them in total, the group was to meet at the Only hotel at 8:00 pm sharp.
Timewise Jeff was able to schedule in the Cable Car for 8 am. Since the first Cable Car went up at eight, it afforded them time to visit Table Mountain. Tickets for Table Mountain were bought five days in advance, with two senior cards at a discount rate to the average price. Now that they had bought their tickets online, the last step was to get confirmation of passes. The night before Jeff was worried that his tickets would not arrive, but he checked Gmail, and to his surprise, the tickets were there from two days before. Made things easy when he was checking electronic mails.
On the day of the Aerial Cableway, Jeff arrived early to find the line long. The ticket line was mainly affected by the people coming from Southeast Asian countries. Jeff, an old-timer USA citizen, wanted to speed things up by getting in front before everyone else, or else it would take too long to get up the mountain. Tickets provided as a bundled package with Table Mountain Tickets and valid for a two-way expedited pass with the Cable Car in Cape Town. Cheap yet affordable to go on the Cable Car for two, Jeff wanted to know about his birthday and whether the Aerial Cableway offered free or discounted tickets.
Unfortunately, Jeff was a foreign national, which made it difficult for him to present an ID. Otherwise, it would have been an excellent idea to use his old senior ID to get Table Mountain birthday tickets for R 0.00. Sunset individual tickets were also available at the time that he choose AM tickets, but since he had a meeting with the overland tour group that night at eight, he wanted AM.
As Jeff had already purchased his tickets many days before, he was able to pass many people on the path, queuing to buy tickets at the Lower Aerial Cableway. He was enthusiastic about being one of the first people to board the Cable Car in summer, which only fits 70 people. Now that the time was right, he leaped in front of the queue to redeem his Table Mountain tickets. The staff member of Table Mountain, wearing a green uniform at the front, was delighted to receive a card from an older member who purchased their ticket online with the scanning barcode visible.
The staff member scanned the ticket with the hand-held barcode scanner and gave way to Jeff and his wife. 4 ½ minutes later, they were at the top of the Aerial Cableway, and there were magnificent views that day. Clouds covered the Atlantic Seaboard in what was known as the Coldfront; clouds also covered Table Mountain in the morning, which is known as the Table Cloth. These two natural occurrences made for picture taking with Jeff and his wife. They snapped some photos for their grandson back in The States.
The States has some magnificent mountains but none like Cape Town’s Table Top. The peak at almost 1km high and 3km long is the backdrop to the city center in Cape Town central regions. Atlantic Seaboard is the viewpoint from Table Mountain from behind Lions Head Mountain, with Signal Hill Road and Robben Island at approximately 7km from the Clock Tower at the V&A Waterfront. Since these landmarks are so visible from the top of Table Mountain, there is no need to use a map, look! The only plans that visitors should be using are Google Maps South Africa. Navigating a city like Cape Town does require expert knowledge of where it is safe to go alone and where to stay in Cape Town, SA.
Luckily, Jeff had booked at a beautiful sea resort for a day or two near the Waterfront. Their accommodation in Cape Town had provided them with the Do’s and Don’ts for staying in Cape Town, which included avoiding areas like Long St and regions near Cape Town International airport, not safe for foreigners.
The hotel was at the Waterfront, which is a relatively safe area comprising of the Greenpoint, Sea Point and Three Anchor Bay areas. Their prominence in Cape Town makes up part of the Atlantic Seaboard. Camps Bay and Clifton areas are also part of this area covered under Atlantic Seaboard. Table Mountain views include Atlantic Seaboard, which made it easy for Jeff and his wife to spot the Waterfront, beaches like Camps Bay, and more! Jeff was especially interested in seeing areas like Boulders Beach penguins, Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point.
Those three areas covered on the first day of their overland tour of the Western Cape. With this in mind, they saved their photos from the view of Table Mountain to show their tour group of thirty people that night when they got down from the Cable Car.
Take from Jeff that the only way to buy Table Mountain tickets is online. Services like Table Mountain Tickets provide all-access, bundled tickets to the cable car. Tickets have skipped the queue for the high tickets line, which made a difference in getting up Table Mountain early – Highly recommended and essential.
In summary – Jeff bought his Table Mountain tickets five days before the Cable Car in Cape Town, which saved him hours of waiting time in the line for passes. He and his wife were able to see the view from Table Mountain by exploring the area near the Upper Aerial Cableway.
Pictures taken of the Southern part of Cape Town included mainly Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Beach, and other Cape Town sightseeing attractions, which he and his wife would see the next day while on tour.