Cape Town has become one of the world’s ‘it’ cities, especially now it is host to one of the new wonders of nature: Table Mountain. In the last few years the city has been recognised and celebrated time after time. Winning the right to host the 2010 World Cup, then recently Kirstenbosch National Gardens was voted one of the world’s top picnic destinations by National Geographic Magazine, Cape Town has also been ranked the world’s top holiday destination by Trip Advisor, as well as winning the bid to be named World Design Capital 2014 and now Table Mountain is one of the new seven Wonders of Nature. Voted in from a list of 28 finalists that included the Great Barrier Reef, Galapagos Islands and Mount Vesuvius. A staple of pub quiz questions everywhere, the New 7 Wonders of Nature are making news all around the world.
Unlike other lists of the world’s wonders, the New 7 Wonders of Nature were chosen by a global poll rather than a small group of people working for a particular organization. At the moment this is the provisional list of winners, the confirmed winners will be announced in early 2012.
They provisional winners are:
Amazon Rainforest and River (Brazil)
Halong Bay (Vietnam)
Iguazu Falls (Argentina/Brazil)
Jeju Island (South Korea)
Komodo Island (Indonesia)
Puerto Princesa Underground River (Philippines)
Table Mountain (South Africa).
South Africa is gaining momentum as one of the world’s best holiday destinations, and now being recognised by one more source – especially one that is a global iniative – will have huge benefits for Cape Town and South Africa as a whole. These awards and nominations will ensure that Cape Town will be one of the first names that people think about when planning their holidays. Not only an economic boon to SA, the increase in positive publicity will work towards changing entrenched attitudes towards South Africa and the rest of Africa.
One of the fortunate aspects of this new list is the geographic concentration of these wonders. You could realistically expect to visit them all over two or three trips. A South American journey could now tick off the Amazon and Iguazu Falls, while a holiday or two to South-East Asia would see all the rest (except for Table Mountain) being crossed off your list.
Contact:
Table Mountain Aerial Cableway:
Tel 021-424-8181
Visit the Table Mountain website
Read all about Table Mountain National Park in Scott Ramsay’s blog from his ‘Year in the Wild’ trip
Photo by: Andrew Deacon (Flickr)
