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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www.signalgun.com

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 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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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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Old Canon

Old Canon - I started this talking about how I started as a journalist and got as far as the model boats when Vernon and the Bismark intervened. I was taking pictures at a Navy day at Simonstown when it was announced there would be a canon firing at noon. Having been a Hornblower fan I went to watch and things took off at a tangent. I was given a lecture on preserving old canon. If you take one from the sea and let it dry out it will just crumble into dust. The salt must first be leached from the molecular structure of the cast iron. I tried to get a picture of one shooting out flames but all I got was a picture of a cloud of smoke.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/vital-spark