“Ten guilders and six bottles of wine to the first sailor in a Dutch East India ship to sight Table Mountain on their long passage from Holland” a quote from Gateway Guides. Table Mountain National Park. What follows is a summary of the history of this National Park based upon this guide. If you want to find out more then this and other guides and be downloaded as a PDF from http://www.gatewayguides.co.za
Table Mountain was chosen as one of the new Seven Natural Wonders of the World in 2011 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. Table Mountain rises to 1000m so comparatively small by the standards of Mount Everest or the Sugar Loaf in Rio de Janeiro. Table Mountain is part of the Cape Peninsula chain and is flanked by the Devil’s Peak (1000m) on the right and the Lion’s Head (670m) on the left.
The first European to see Table Mountain was Bartolomeau Dias on his return voyage in search of a route to India, having missed it on his eastern transit. It wasn’t until 1601 that the Dutch Navigator, Van Spilbergen, seeing this mountain that resembled a table rising out of the sea gave it its current name. Jan van Riebeck led the first settlers in 1652 and he was the first to scale the mountain.
The first cable car ascending Table Mountain was opened in 1929. The cable car recorded its first million visitors in 1959 and by 1990 this had grown to 8.5million. The current cable car is of Swiss design and can carry 65 passengers to the summit in 3 minutes. The car has a revolving floor allowing passenger a 360-degree view of Cape Town and Table Mountain.
Sadly I was due to ascend Table Mountain the following day but overnight the winds had strengthened to gale force and ‘the table clothe was down’ so only a visit to the lower cable car station was possible.
Just a few words about Lion’s Rock (See photo) first named by the Dutch around 1620 and that became of commercial significance in 1673 when a permanent watch station was placed on the summit. Three men with a cannon and signal flag manned it. The cannon was fired whenever a ship was spotted to warn the castle and settlement below. In 1815, under British occupation a signalling station was built on Signal Hill – below and to the immediate east of Lion’s Rock. The cannon was replaced by a series of shaped flags and a varying number of balls hoisted on the flagstaff to indicate what type of ship was approaching and where it was from. In 1902 a cannon was hauled back up Signal Hill and fired at 12 o’clock midday to enable ships in the bay to set their chronometers. The tradition of the ‘Noon Day Gun’ continues today using two of the oldest working cannons in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment