Dorje went up the cable car for the first time yesterday, to the top of Table Mountain. Or, as he calls it, the ‘Table Car’. I’ve also never been up in the new cable car before – only down once after climbing up.

He was interested in the view for a while up there, but it didn’t take long before he wanted to go back down the cable car again. As if it was one of those coin-operated cars outside a supermarket you go on again and again.

At R130 an adult, and R68 a child over 3 (Dorje’s four), it’s not quite the same as grabbing a handful of R2 coins (although there was a winter discount on, R130 for both of us.)

I managed to distract him by telling him we were going to see the ‘crack in the mountain’ (Platteklip Gorge). I don’t think he was overly impressed by the crack though, asking ‘where is it’ when we were right there, but at least I managed to get a couple of hours ramble on the mountain before heading down again.

His favourite part of being on the top, as usual, was scrambling on the rocks (we could have spend the entire time within metres of the cableway). While he was blissfully climbing the rocks, I enjoyed the worried glances from the tourists, some of whom were getting vertigo on the cable car, and for whom a four year old perched precariously above a kilometre fall was too much.

I did get nervous though when, having a snack on the cliffs above Plattelkip, he headed for the edge to look at a catterpillar. The catterpillar was in some grass, and it wasn’t clear if the grass was solid, or just hanging over the edge of the cliff. Luckily for the caterpillar, I managed to convince Dorje not to risk it.

If this is the quiet season, it must be like Adderley Street up there in the summer. I look forward to the day Dorje can climb it for himself.

He may not be ready for Table Mountain yet, but his climbing is getting better. He managed to climb onto the tree at the my house unaided for the first time. I’m already starting to see that the region around the tree will be a dead zone in the garden.