To be honest though - they don't really make me work long hours - it's perfectly by choice. I believe my previous manager once referred to me as Captain Underpants. He meant it in a nice way. I think. ;)
Tag Archives: hill
Cannon on a hill
Don't be fooled - this isn't Cape Town's Noon Day Gun. (You know, the cannon on Signal Hill that's gone kaboom at noon almost every day since it's placement in 1902). To be honest - I last visited the Noon Day Gun when I was a young kid. In fact, I can actually hardly remember the visit! Since then Kerry-Anne and I have made two attempts to see the cannon fire - the first was on a Sunday, and the second on a public holiday... the two days on which the Noon Day Gun takes a break!
This particular cannon is found on Tygerberg Hill and was presumably used as a signaling cannon to alert farmers as to the presence of new ships in the harbour.
Map to the top of Tygerberg Hill
The Tygerberg Nature Reserve was opened in 1973, which makes it only a little older than I am. I never realised it before, but the 300-hectare reserve has 460 plant species, of which 12 are endemic to Cape Town and three endemic to the reserve itself! Besides for these, the reserve is home to about 50 different mammals, 125 species of bird, 35 reptile species and several different types of frogs.
Yesterday's photo was taken to the left of this one, more or less where you see the people standing - far in the distance. The setting here is beautifully peaceful with marvel-worthy views of Table Bay, Table Mountain, the Cape Flats, False Bay, and the Boland mountain range.
Two of our readers requested directions to the reserve, and since it's a little tricky to explain I drew a map using Google Maps. So, click through here for a map to the top of the Tygerberg Nature Reserve. Once the satellite image has loaded, wait a moment for the route to load. :)