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Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a much-loved South African personality, has thrown his weight behind Table Mountain’s bid to become one of the New7Wonders of Nature.

Table Mountain is currently on the shortlist of 28 natural sites, which are each competing for one of seven spots on the final list. The decision is based purely on the number of online votes each attraction receives.

Following an April Fool’s Day joke by Cape Town-Based radio station, Heart 104.9, Table Mountain Aerial Cableway would like to make it clear that locals are still welcome to make use of the Cableway.

“We love and welcome locals!” says Cableway CEO, Sabine Lehmann, in response to the joke.

Columbian filmmaker, Federico Uribe Velesquez, became the Table Mountain Cableway’s 20-millionth visitor when he bought his ticket on Thursday, March 25, 2010.

Maxine Jackson and Taryn Skuce. Photo by Tara Turkington

Five Table Mountain Aerial Cableway staff members attended a blogging workshop at their offices on Wednesday afternoon, along with three employees from Splash PR and Media Consultants.

The workshop was held by Flow Communications, responsible for co-ordinating Cableway’s website content, including the blog.

Sabine Lehmann, CEO, Table Mountain Aerial Cableway

Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company Limited is proud to announce its website’s fresh new look, with added content and features, quick tips and 50 fun Did You Knows?

On the overhauled website, you also will find information about whether the cableway is open, the first and last trips of the day, the weather on top, and even when the sun will rise and set.

“Being on top of Table Mountain makes you see how small you are in the scheme of things, when you see how big the world is from up there,” says Table Mountain Aerial Cableway operator, Eugene Balie.

Eugene Balie first went up the Cableway as a child; he never thought that, one day, he’d operate the cable car.

Born 25 years ago in Cape Town, he started working as a cable car operator two months ago.

When you press your nose against the glass of the cable car taking you up Table Mountain, remember that it’s entirely possible that an A-list schnozzle may once have pressed up against that very spot.

Cape Town is a top destination for the world’s rich and famous, and the cable car ride to the top of the mountain is sure to make it onto their must-do list. The cableway has carried Hollywood and Bollywood megastars, beauty pageant winners, sports stars, royalty, political bigwigs and business leaders from all across the globe, as well as any number of South African celebrities.

Photo courtesy djbones.

In recent years, people of different spiritual persuasions have come to believe that Table Mountain is one of the planet’s 12 main energy centres that radiate magnetic, electric or spiritual energy.

Each of the main centres (or “spinner wheels”) are believed to have special properties representing the four elements vital to the earth’s wellbeing.

Table Mountain has been shortlisted as one of 28 natural sites from around the world competing for a place on the New 7 Wonders list.

The mountain has beaten the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Azure Window in Malta and the Rock of Aphrodite in Cyprus, for a spot on the shortlist. 

As far back as the 1870s, Capetonians had proposed installing some form of transport to get to the top of Table Mountain.

In those days the only way up was on foot, but the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 halted the plans that would see many more people summit the mountain.