Saturday January 31st, 2026 Queen Anne, Cape Town, South Africa

Neil Wylie
Jan 12
4 min read

For our second day in Cape Town we’ve arranged for a guide to take us up Table Mountain and show us around the city. The guide was booked through a website called Tours by Locals, they connect you with local tour guides in many cities across the world – booking and communication through the website was very easy.

As arranged, we met our guide Craig Barrowman at 8:30AM outside the cruise terminal and he quickly walked us to his beautiful 6 seater people carrier. Craig introduced himself and we discovered that he’d been doing tours in Cape Town for about 20 years, we loved his confident style and deep knowledge.

At Craig’s direction, I had previously booked “fast pass” tickets for the cable car ride up to the top of Table Mountain and this turned out to be a huge benefit as we skipped the considerable queue and were able to board the next available cable car. The ride to the top of the mountain is very special; the cable cars rotate through 360 degrees as they progress so everyone on board can see the amazing views. It only takes a few minutes to reach the summit, but it is exhilarating. The entire city is revealed below with Table Bay beyond holding the infamous Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment. Further to the left we could see Signal Hill and Lion’s Head. We caught a glimpse of hikers making their way up a rocky rail, a serious mountain tour that requires fitness, preparation and hiking equipment for the 1000M ascent.

Craig took us on a circular tour around the top of the mountain, pointing out all of the significant views as well as the flora and fauna; the mountain has 8,200 plant species, of which around 80% are fynbos (fine bush). We saw a small animal that Craig explained was called a Dassie; though they look like a rodent the Dassie is actually related to the elephant which is very hard to believe. Personally I think the Dassie is really the Cape Town Haggis, it’s so obvious!

The 12 Apostles are a range of peaks that extend south from Table Mountain like a jagged procession of stone giants marching toward the sea. Though most of the visitors stay in the area of the cable car terminal, as we did, Craig pointed to other trails that can be taken across the entirety of the mountain top, and we could see some brave hikers way off in the distance slowly advancing towards a distant peak. It truly is an amazing place to visit, and we had great weather this morning with bright skies and only a light breeze.

A short drive from Table Mountain is Signal Hill, this is where in the times of the old sailing ships flag signals would be sent up to indicate to the farmers inland that a ship was inbound – thus enabling then to bring their crops for sale to the depleted ship. This was the original reason for the settlement at Cape Town – it was established by the Dutch East India Company as a watering and victualling station. At the top of the hill we saw several companies offering tandem paragliding off the hill and down to one of the beach areas we saw on our tour yesterday. I watched in awe as one after another the braze souls, strapped onto a pilot, ran pell mell down the smooth rock face until the wind filled the sail and up they went.

Craig drove us through the center of Cape Town, explaining the various sites and landmarks We passed through some interesting neighborhoods like Bo-Kaap, the former Malay area with its brightly colored buildings and mosques as well as De Waterkant also with vibrant buildings and cobbled streets.

The VOC Vegetable Garden is a beautiful park in the center of Cape Town; it was originally the place where the Dutch East India Company grew vegetables for stocking ships – VOC being the initials for Dutch East India Company in Dutch. Ornamental ponds, statues and lawns now dominate the park with its well-tended plants and trees; recently there has been an effort to reestablish a vegetable garden grown some of the species that would have been popular back in the 17^th century. Progressing through the gardens, passing the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, we could hear singing in the distance and soon came upon an open square where a local group had formed a semicircle and were performing traditional African songs with dancing and drumming – it was absolutely delightful and I found myself drawn into the rhythm and being mesmerized by the singing.

At the far end of the garden emerged onto Government Avenue, a long straight tree-lined pedestrian walkway with a few market stalls: the South African Parliament building lined one side of the avenue. St. George’s Cathedral anchored the end of Government Avenue, this was the place where the archbishop Desmond Tutu, a key figure in the abolition of apartheid, used to preach and off to one side there was an interesting wooden arch dedicated to him, the locals call it the “arch for the arch”. Unfortunately the cathedral was not open, but we could see some of the brilliant stain glass from the outside.

To finish the tour we asked Craig to drop us at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, a vast complex of homes, businesses, shops and restaurants near where our ship was docked. Craig was unbelievably helpful; he showed us where the ship’s shuttle bus would pick us up and even took the time to drive into the very busy parking lot and walk us to a restaurant that was his recommendation for lunch. We can’t recommend Craig enough, if you are ever in need of a personal guide in Cape Town, he’s your man (toursbycraig@gmail.com).

We enjoyed a great lunch at Volo Telo, sitting outside watching the bustle of the shoppers and listening to the live music. After a bit of retail therapy and a nice coffee we returned to the ship via the shuttle bus.

As the day drew to a close, and the ship prepared to set sail, our fantastic return to Cape Town was capped off with the beautiful white tablecloth settling on Table Mountain – what a sight!