“During the many years of incarceration on Robben Island, we often looked across Table Bay at the magnificent silhouette of Table Mountain. To us on Robben Island, Table Mountain was a beacon of hope. It represented the mainland to which we knew we would one day return.” – Nelson Mandela 1998
There’s a reason President Mandela said ‘often’ rather than ‘always’. In 2011, this was my view of Table Mountain on my first day in Cape Town:
Things were somewhat clearer the day I climbed it.