Table Mountain National Park and Cape Town
Good-looking, fun-loving, sporty and sociable. If Cape Town was in the dating game that's how her profile would read. And - for once - it's all true. The Mother City of South Africa occupies one of the world's most stunning locations, with an iconic mountain slap-bang in her centre.
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As beautiful as the surrounding beaches and vineyards can be, it's the rugged wilderness of Table Mountain, coated in a unique flora, that grabs everyone's attention.
Long before the Dutch took a fancy to the Cape Peninsula in the 17th century, the land was home to the Khoisan people who valued the spiritual power of the mountains and their life-providing water. While the European immigrants, and the slaves they brought here, have all shaped the physical environment of South Africa's third-largest city, Table Mountain - now protected within a national park that covers some 75% of the peninsula - remains at Cape Town's heart. This ever present backdrop is the city's adventure playground, as well as a source of legend and continuing spiritual nourishment. Under the Khoisan name of Hoerikwaggo - meaning 'Mountain in the Sea' - the national park is promoting a new series of trails that will allow visitors, for the first time, to sleep on the mountain top while hiking a world-class trail from Cape Point to the City Bowl.
Complementing the mountain's natural beauty is Cape Town's eye-catching way with design and colour in everything from the brightly painted façades of the Bo-Kaap and the Victorian bathing chalets of Muizenberg, to the contemporary Afro-chic décor of the many excellent guesthouses, restaurants and bars. The city is crammed with galleries displaying amazing artworks and shops selling wonderfully inventive craftwork. It's also getting a reputation as the fashion nexus of South Africa. This creativity seems to spring naturally from the city's multiethnic population, proof of South Africa's status as the rainbow nation and a visual record of the country's tumultuous
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As beautiful as the surrounding beaches and vineyards can be, it's the rugged wilderness of Table Mountain, coated in a unique flora, that grabs everyone's attention.
Long before the Dutch took a fancy to the Cape Peninsula in the 17th century, the land was home to the Khoisan people who valued the spiritual power of the mountains and their life-providing water. While the European immigrants, and the slaves they brought here, have all shaped the physical environment of South Africa's third-largest city, Table Mountain - now protected within a national park that covers some 75% of the peninsula - remains at Cape Town's heart. This ever present backdrop is the city's adventure playground, as well as a source of legend and continuing spiritual nourishment. Under the Khoisan name of Hoerikwaggo - meaning 'Mountain in the Sea' - the national park is promoting a new series of trails that will allow visitors, for the first time, to sleep on the mountain top while hiking a world-class trail from Cape Point to the City Bowl.
Complementing the mountain's natural beauty is Cape Town's eye-catching way with design and colour in everything from the brightly painted façades of the Bo-Kaap and the Victorian bathing chalets of Muizenberg, to the contemporary Afro-chic décor of the many excellent guesthouses, restaurants and bars. The city is crammed with galleries displaying amazing artworks and shops selling wonderfully inventive craftwork. It's also getting a reputation as the fashion nexus of South Africa. This creativity seems to spring naturally from the city's multiethnic population, proof of South Africa's status as the rainbow nation and a visual record of the country's tumultuous