Some Interesting facts about Table Mountain

Being one of my favourite places I read as much as I can about Table Mountain and its history. Its amazing what odd facts one can learn over time. Here are a few of them:

The first horse ridden up Table Mountain was in 1798.

The first blind man to ride up Table Mountain was in 1829.

In 1937 Sidney Jarman became the first person to ride a bicycle  from Constantia Nek to Maclears Beacon.

The first motor car to make it up onto the back of Table Mountain was in 1928. It took 4 hours!

The fastest ascent of Platteklip Gorge is 27 minutes

The fastest descent is 11 minutes

The first passenger cable car was introduced in 1929 (there had been a previous cable car but this was used for dam construction not pleasure)

There are more species of plant on Table Mountain than in the whole of the British isles.

The surface area of the mountain is 56km sq.

The back of Table Mountain is home to 5 reservoirs constructed in the 1890’s.

The indigenous people of the area called the mountain Hoeriwagga. Meaning Mountain of the sea.

In 1503, Antonie de Saldanha became the first person recorded to climb the mountain (there is no record of the indigenous people having done so, although this does not mean the did not ever scale its lofty heights.)

The first recorded lady to reach the summit was Lady Anne Barnard in 1797.

Joshua Penny, and American sailor was the first recorded person to live on the mountain. He stayed on the mountain for 14 months in 1799 -1800.