Tuesday, July 05, 2011
I kept reading articles on the Noon Gun, and a few weekends ago we decided to embrace the idea and go! We packed a picnic (my essential accompaniment on any outing I do with children - you can make do without shoes, or jackets or anything else, but without food, my children will not go!), and off we set.
I'll admit that I don't know town that well at all. And I'll admit, that in spite looking on the internet and avidly studying where it was, I still got us lost! Why didn't we use Braveheart's new found GPS?! So a stop on some steep street in the Bo-Kaap was required and then we were well on our way.
The kids had a BLAST. I must say, that this is one of those days that will go down in our chronicles as one of the best days ever - Aragorn's words to me as we are exploring the guns and cannons all over the base were - "Mom, isn't this just one of the most funner days ever?!" Got to say, that's enough for me to make it the best day ever!
Beautiful weather also made it superb (ahem can you tell it was a few weeks ago - there was none of this present chill in the air!). We got there at about 1115 -I think the gates may only open then. A wise lady told us to leave the windows of our cars open a little to ensure the light bulbs didn't blow and that the alarm wouldn't go off. Then we set off to explore...
I was so impressed with this Navy officer and how well he spoke to the crowd who had gathered by about 1150. His little speech was really very informative. Sadly I didn't get a photo of the cannon going off as I was holding some little people's ears!
We then sat on the grass and had our picnic, and had the entire place to ourselves - it beats Signal Hill as there were no crowds, and the view was just as spectacular. They had to unlock the gates to let us out (we left at around 1), after having had a LOVELY outing.
Strongly recommended by the clan!
This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. In the meantime, head to SACH Carnival #2 - Outings for this week's carnival. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!
what enormous fun! :) Who was the wise woman? I hope a real friend and not the friendly car guard who was hoping to break in to your car! :)
Thanks for contributing this post to the carnival - it's been awesome reading about everyone's experiences :)
I've been meaning to do this with the kids for ages, now I will! Thanks for posting.
I imagine the canon must have been pretty deafening, what an experience!
We saw plenty of canons recently which were much admired, I can just imagine how overjoyed my son would be if he could see one being fired!
Although we would have to do a lot of ear holding too LOL
Very interesting and unusual outing. Lovely scenery.