Rising above the city of Cape Town, Table Mountain is one of the great natural wonders of the world, an instantly recognisable and much-loved local and international icon.
Blessed with almost outlandish botanical richness, this ancient flat-topped rock has also been imbued with great cultural and spiritual significance. Mountains in the Sea is a brand-new publication that pays tribute to the mountain’s many facets (and the national park that protects them) and here we give you a tantalising glimpse of what it has to offer.
Carved out of the soft band of shale between the mountain’s granite base and overlying sandstone, Chapman’s Peak Drive opened in May 1922 and is still one of the world’s most spectacular coastal roads.
Rising just 1088 metres above sea level and covered in well-trodden paths, Table Mountain offers spectacular walks for hikers of all capabilities, such as Platteklip Gorge, shown here. Despite these trappings of domestication, however, the mountain remains a wild and treacherous place, and care should always be taken.
The male flowerhead of the dune conebush Leucadendron coniferum, a member of the protea family. The Cape Floristic Region, which includes Table Mountain’s flora, contains 8 500 flowering plants and is the smallest (though proportionally richest) of the world’s six plant kingdoms.
Chacma baboons are an integral part of the ecology of the Table Mountain chain, where they feed on more than 100 fynbos species and even forage for seafood along the shore. The territories of some troops overlap with human settlements, which has set the scene for some intense interspecies conflict.
The icy waters that lap the Cape Peninsula harbour an astonishing array of life and colour. This kelp forest, which lies within the 975-square-kilometre marine component of Table Mountain National Park, is a popular dive spot.
You won’t spot the Big Five on a trip to Cape Town, but visitors who brave the winter months between May and September could see southern right whales, which come to these waters to breed.
Mountains in the Sea by John Yeld and Martine Barker (SANParks, Africa Geographic, 2010) is a warm and lavish celebration of the history, flora, fauna and people of this iconic landmark and the national park that protects it. Available from good bookshops and www.africageographic.com for R295.
Photographs by John Yeld and Martine Barker. This article was taken from the July edition of Africa Geographic magazine.
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