The Hartbeespoortdam Cable Cars {the big staycation}

Hey there! This is part two of our staycation, that I forgot all to write about. The last installment was about the Van Gaalen cheese farm, just outside Hartbeespoortdam. Today, I bring you other things to day while at the dam.

Did you know that Hartbeespoortdam also has cable cars? Not just Table Mountain you all. Many of us northerners might know this, but not a lot of people know that it has also been recently renovated. The last time I went up there was in primary school and the cable cars were scary and shoddy. You had to be either too young {and subsequently uneducated} to go up there, or entirely out of your mind.

The cable cars were non-operational for seven years while a private company not only upgraded the system, but also the mountain it was built on. You see, in primary school there wasn't this awesomely cheap bar where you could chill the whole day and view the little town below to your heart's content.

What to do:
Once at the top, you can - besides gawking at the views or freaking out about the paragliders above you and asking random strangers to send you the pictures that they had just taken with their cellphones - attempt to walk the Dassie Walk. Although not long or tedious, it is a bit of a stretch if you go there on a very HOT day. We trekked it anyway.
 

The Dassie Walk not only offers you an almost 360 view of your surroundings, with markers and a little bit of history of every viewpoint, but also shows off the fauna and flora of the Magaliesburg. If you were lucky, you could spot some dassies. We spotted a tree agama (or Bloukop Koggelmander in Afrikaans.)

These little lizards, which can be about 13 cm to 30 cm long are beautiful with their blue heads. But boy do they pack a punch. I've been bitten by them quite a few times and they hurt like heck!
 

What to eat:
If you are peckish, you can either order a picnic basket - that is prepacked for you - or drop in at the Cafe Buggatis at the top, or the bottom. There is also this fantastic little self-service shoppe at the top, which on this particular day, was selling massive pizza slices. As we already had a huge breakfast at the cheese farm, we snacked on the FREE chips in snackbowls and some biltong bought at the bar.

What to drink:
The bar at the top was stocked to the brim with alcoholic and non-alcoholic options. But a firm favourite of this HOT day, was slushies mixed with vodka. We sat at the bar, as all the tables were already occupied. 

I also learned on this day that I am a huge sucker for placebos, as I got tipsy on Rock Shandy. I thought it had alcohol in it okay? Turns out it is just bitters, soda water and lemonade.  

Tickets sell at R160 for adults and kids R90. If it is a really hot day, make sure you have a bottle of water handy while standing in the queue, as the inside of the building is hot as all hell.