Turning back the clock

There were many highlights during our 2018 South African holiday, and the first one blew me away. 

After checking in to our nice room in a modern Cape Town hotel, we visited the bar for a refreshing ale. This is what we saw from the windows of the bar, the spectacular Table Mountain. We had a lesser view from our room.

Naturally we must visit the mountain. It won't come to us. The mist atop the mountain can be very unpredictable. It could cover the mountain and the chair lift would not operate, nor would it in high winds, but we were fine. The mist swirled and danced around the view over Cape Town. The city would disappear completely at times, then seconds later the full view of the city was before your eyes.

Do I have to check what bird this is? An easy one, a red winged starling. 

What was this rat like creature that made its home on he rocks? We had seen very cute chipmunks in Canada a year or so earlier, so it didn't look like those. We asked someone and we were told it is a hyrax, or Cape Hyrax or Rock Hyrax. The creature didn't seem threatening, perhaps because it is a herbivore and has the cutest informal name, dassie. And there were lots of dassies on the mountain top.

This would be a very mean quiz question, and I was amazed that the closest animal to a hyrax is an elephant. They share quite a few characteristics.

Later: Also known as a shrew mouse.