I see the old farm at Hooggelegen has a web site and there is a Signal Gun Winery. I must investigate further and find if the young Garagiste de Wit has graduated to a wine master. I'd like to think so, they were such a great family to interview. IT seems unlikely that the conservation corridor has been established as I understand there is a great deal of house building going on in the ares but the slope of of Kanonkop is steep and just maybe! Next to the tractor museum there was a row of shops and in one was the office of a firm of pipe organ makers, at that time run by the third generation of organ makers the third generation of organ builders. Their organs are in Windhoek, Buenos Aires, Vienna and Kiev as well as spread along the Cape Coast all individually designed like pieces of architecture. From this you will appreciate the grapes were not the only rich pickings from Hooggelegen

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There it is, a tractor museum, a canon from the Napoleonic wars and a wine farm all on Hooggelegen. Just let me add this last item. When I was there Ryk de Wit was trying to organise a stipr of land some 12 miles long as a nature ramble and conservation area but was having difficulty convincing his neighbours that they should all participate. His idea was that it would not just be a ramble but a corridor along which small mammals could travel and maintain the health of the gene pool. As well as this and the views from the top of the mountain there are more species of flora in the Western Cape than in the whole of the UK.
On the top of the rocks in front of the trees, one of the dassies is sitting. Unfortunately, the image won't magnify to show it properly.

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The last item on the Hooggelegen pictures is the vineyard. Ryk de Wit - I've found his name at last - grew grapes and sold then to one of the wineries. His son, however was making wine in a little shed and I was invited to investigate. I found he wasn't the only micro winery but there was a whole gang of the in Durbanville taking the name of Garagiste, which I understand is French for a garage mechanic. I've looked for my file on that group but it's gone. Ryk's son took me to his 'wine cellar' and asked me to taste the wine. While caution whispered in my ear, curiosity drove me to agree. The wine was young and bold but full of flavour. I had a folio of pictures of those garagiste but, unfortunately, they've gone with my old computer.

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Mr de Wit, the owner of Hooggelegen took me to the top of Kanonkop to show me the panoramic views, from the sea on one side to the mountains around Stellenbosch and even to Table Mountain. It was a photographer's dream but unfortunately I'm not the dream of a photographer but, for what they are worth, I have posted my photographs. Like everything else, I suppose Hooggelegen has changed but I remember Mr de Wit's enthusiasm and my enjoyment of the several visits I made to the farm.

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The second interest I want to highlight at Hooggegelegen is the track up the side of Kanonkop. It is through a small nature reserve where there were Blue Wildebeest, antelope, which I think were Impala, Ostrich and the small rock rabbits known ass Dassies. I hadn't written the name of the owner, who showed me around with such patience and understanding so I googled the farm and now find it is a bistro and all kinds of things. It may all have changed but all I can do is tell you how I found it ten or so years ago and try to show how much I enjoyed the experience.

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Included in the Hoogegelegen museum are some older farm implements, including a reaper that may have been horse drawn hanging on the wall.As I boy I remember it being a vicous looking machine which now and then cut the leg of a farm worker. The corn fell on the wooden platform, which was made up of slats and worked like a conveyor belt taking the cut corn to one side and leaving it in long rows.The horse equipment is intriguing, especially the piece meant to have two horses or oxen on one side and only one on the other.I'm afraid I don't know enough to explain how that worked. The scythe with the upper works I assume was meant to make sheaves as the reaper cut the corn.   

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Irish tractor

During the war, with the farm labourers called up to the army, the government recruited girls for the Land Army to replace the men. When the girls got on to the normal tractor they pushed down on the accelerator, the tractor rreared up and fell over on top of them, killing several. The Irish came up with a solution - the white tractor in the picture. It has the rear bumper extended so that the tractor can only tip up so far. Strangely enough when the tractor reared up, the drivers grabbed the wheel and pushed even harder on the accelerator. When the bumper hit the ground it had a kind of whiplash effect and the driver went back, then forward and eased their foot on the accelerator. The tractor came down with a bone shaking bang but the driver was still in the driving seat.

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Talking about the picture of Kanonkop, where the old canon sits looking over the valley, I mentioned the farm shed. It looks quite normal but when I looked inside it was full of old tractors, a real museum. They were what might be called 'all weather' tractors - the driver was out in all weathers! Form this you will see how fascinating journalism can be. While I have included a good sample of the tractors I have kept back the Irish one for another day. I loved it!

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This is the farm on which the canon is situated. It lies just outside the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville. and is called Hoogegelegen. There are three things the I will comment on, first the trail you can just make out zig-zagging up the mountain, then the farm shed in the middle ground and, of course, being in the Western Cape, the grape vines in the foreground. Bearing in mind this all started from taking photographs of model boats it is the best illustration of how opportunities open up when you talk to people about their own interests. This was taken in summer when it doesn't rain in the Cape. The vines are of course irrigated. I just hope I can find the photographs I took from the top of Kanonkop. 

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Details of Kononkop canon

Rather than write about the old Napoleonic war canon at Cape Town, I thought I'd just put the details on display.

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