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

www.sullatoberdalton.com

www.signalgun.com

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.

www.sullatoberdalton.com

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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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. 

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/vital-spark

One of the canon experts told me he had a farm called Kanonkop not far from where wee lived in Cape Town's Durbanville suburb and he had something I might be interested in. It turned out to be an old cannon, made in Falkirk and sent out with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when Napoleon was causing all the trouble. The Brits took over the colony to prevent it being used to threaten the route to India. The general in charge was a Scot called Baird, who fought two 'battles' in which there were a few sprained ankles and red faces but at least one of his canon is preserved at Kanonkop. The canon was cast at Falkirk in the Carron works and bears King George's insignia of the time.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadows-Veldt-Rebellion-Sullatober-Dalton-ebook/dp/B017HFI0PW/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446909908&sr=1-3