Matthew’s day using the Cable Car
It was the night before in Cape Town, and not knowing whether the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway would be open the next day, Matthew used his phone to check whether the Cableway would be open the next day. Anticipating this, he searched “Cape Town Weather” because the weather in Cape Town dictates that the Cable Car is either open on a given day or closed due to high winds, rain, and or adverse weather conditions. Tuyệt quá! It said, “Sunny, clear skies with moderate wind and 30 độ”.
That means the Cable Car would be open. Kế tiếp, Matthew would need to find out if it would be sunny the whole day or raining at any point during the day. If it was raining, then a ticket expiring for morning or afternoon had to be used in time.
Table Mountain offers two types of tickets, morning and afternoon. So Matthew checked both times to see when the weather in Cape Town was at it’s most appropriate time to buy the tickets online for the Table Mountain Cableway in advance.
Morning tickets are valid till 1:00 buổi chiều, so he thought that it would be possible to get the tickets first thing in the morning before the line gets long, or he could buy it online now to save time in the queue.
Because Matthew was with a guest, he decided to buy the tickets online at Table Mountain Tickets. The only place online where tickets information is available in abundance for visitors.
The process of buying tickets was smooth, and all Matthew has to do was fill out the intended date, time, and make payment online using PayPal, a secure checkout using his Credit Card.
Now that payment was made, Matthew wanted to get confirmation that his tickets were being ordered. Luckily the tickets came with a message stating that the tickets were being procured and would be provided within 24 giờ. Tuyệt quá, he thought, but the card should be for tomorrow, how am I to get the ticket in time for the Cable Car? That is when Table Mountain Tickets sent the confirmation email with the ticket’s barcode almost immediately.
Tickets in hand, Matthew wanted to print out his passes for the Cable Car so that he would know that they were safe. Printed passes are better than phone passes because they allow emergencies incase the phone died or broke.
Finding a print shop was easy for Matthew, even at this late hour, tickets could be printed by his hotel, making it a convenient way to assure him that he would have passes for the next day. Looking forward to this expedition, he excitedly put the tickets in his pocket and decided to go to sleep. The very next day, he woke up early to beat the queue at Table Mountain. After a well-rested sleep, he packed his bag with lots and lots of supplies. Water, a light jacket and sunscreen were a must, as well as a hat to keep the sun off of his eyes. The camera phone was excellent, so he just took it along.
With a backpack in hand, he headed out the door to go to Table Mountain. Uber arrived reasonably quickly after he opened his phone up outside to order a regular taxi ride. The driver arrived within minutes, and he greeted him to the car as they confirmed the destination, “Núi Bàn,” they both agreed. Matthew, wanting to establish, said, “Aerial Cableway.” The driver nodded.
Heading there was not long, maybe 20 minutes from Cape Town City Centre. There was even a part that passed by the Lion’s Head and signals hill turn-off. That was easy! Now for the hard part, the driver said he was not from Cape Town, so Matthew hoped that he would know where to get off for the Cable Car. Zimbabwe drivers are standard in Cape Town as well as other North African countries, as Matthew learned from his airport shuttle driver many days earlier. To keep an eye on it, Matthew kept his smartphone out with Google Maps to Table Mountain Aerial Cableway. It was easy to find it because the Cableway was 1km further down the road from where the Table Mountain Road turned to the left from Kloof Nek Road. When he arrived, the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway was preparing to open. Các 7:30 am staff cable car had left up, and he was left as the Lower Aerial Cableway wondering what he should do. There was a ticket office and a sign for the Red Bus, so next, he looked for other symbols. “Tickets Office,” there was a sign in the distance, but as soon as he could see, there was another sign. “With tickets” và “Without tickets.” The queue was getting long, and he assumed it would be full in another hour, so he left for the tickets cue that said: “with tickets.” That was the right choice because in another half an hour the ticket queue was full. There were so many people that cars and hordes of visitors flocked to the Lower Aerial Cableway.
Cape Town that month had experienced an influx in visitors due to the publicity of Table Mountain’s international status as a New 7 Wonder of Nature and it being a warm sunny day without clouds. Matthew had read that some days the cloud covers Table Mountain in what is known as the “Table Cloth,” suitable name, but today it was bright and with an excellent reason. It was a dry season.
The dry season is ten months out of the year, so Matthew thought it would be an excellent time to plan a visit to Cape Town then. The wet season months were June-July, not a superb season if someone was looking to be in Cape Town, whether on work or holiday.
With that in mind, he set off as one of the first passengers on the newly renovated Table Mountain Cable Cars. Seventy passengers loaded up the cable car to its full capacity before announcing, “stay clear of the doors, please.” Doors closed, and he was up. 4 ½ minutes later, he reached the top of the Cable Car in what was a spectacular round-trip with the floor of the cable car rotating a full 360 Degrees. All directions provided vantage points not seen in any other way in Cape Town except for a helicopter tour. That means this ticket gave value for money! A card for less than the cost of a helicopter tour with more view and time at the top than any other in Cape Town.
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