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Table Mountain National Park
People with disabilities
Wheelchair Access
There are several tourist destinations within the confines of the TMNP. The major visitor destinations are listed here. These have varying accessibility levels for the mobility impaired.
Table Mountain
Access to the mountain top is accessible through a lift and the revolving cable car system. Parking can be arranged for people with mobility impairment right at the entrance through prior arrangement or by communicating with one of the security guards. On the mountaintop the shop, restaurant and toilets all have ramped access. A series of pathways takes visitors around the mountaintop. Some of these are over cobblestone while others have a smoother surface.
Cape Point
There are parking bays for the mobility impaired at Cape Point. Access can be gained into the curio shop, the information centre and to the public toilets, which are on the western side of the car park. The ramp descending to these ablution facilities may be too steep for some. The restaurant at Cape Point has a staggered access ramp that permits wheelchairs to move down the steep slope.
There is another accessible toilet in the restaurant. The restaurant’s lower deck overlooking False Bay has a particularly steep ramp and assistance may be required. The Point’s highlight is the funicular that takes people up the steep slope to a lookout point. This allows easy access to a wheelchair user. It does not go all the way to the summit, and to reach this beacon, visitors are required to climb stairs. The toilets at the lookout point have no specific accessibility adaptations, but they are wide enough for a wheelchair to get to the toilet, although the door cannot be closed behind. The lower section of a second curio shop is down a small flight of stairs.
There are several other lookout points in this section of the reserve. Many of these are accessible by vehicle, but the area’s walks are not wheelchair compatible.
Boulders Beach and Penguin Colony
A well-designed wooden boardwalk allows people with mobility impairment the opportunity to get right down to the penguin colony beach (Foxy Beach). There is also ramped access into the new information centre built on the site of the old degaussing station. Ablutions for wheelchair users are also present here. A concrete pathway ("Willis Walk") provides a firm surface for movement between the Information Centre and Foxy Beach (where the bulk of the penguins reside) and the bathing beach. This pathway is quite steep in places. A crude concrete ramp can be used to access the beach itself, although many will require assistance, as it is very steep.
Silvermine
Silvermine launched a 650 m boardwalk around the reservoir to coincide with the park’s celebration on 4 September 2003. "This is one of the finest achievements of the Table Mountain National Park as it celebrates its fifth anniversary," said Maxwell Moss, wheelchair-bound member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs & Tourism, who officially opened the boardwalk.
(Please see additional information on Wheelchair Accessibility)
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