To arms!

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Okay, so we have a little 4 year old, almost 5 year old boy running around the house.  He loves to be a pirate or a super hero, anything really that involves a sword, or a gun, etc.  To indulge him in his passion, we planned a trip to Chavonnes Battery Museum.  

Colonist vs Pirate
 Until recently I never even knew about this museum. Two reasons for my ignorance would be that it is like the little brother of The Castle of Good Hope, living in it's shadow and another is that it was only excavated in 1999!!  Okay, I know, that is more than 10 years ago, but most of the museums I have been to are at least 100 years old.



I was very much surprised at Jethro's endless enthusiasm.  He loved every bit of it and kept on wanting to go back to the cannons.  He loved seeing the cannon balls and the lighting sticks and walking over the old ruins.  Micah was not fazed about the cannons but loved running up and town with Daddy chasing after him.  




This museum is located at the V&A Waterfront and you would never say it's a museum when you enter the building.  It's located in the basement of the BOE building and from the outside looks like any other modern building but what a surprise when you enter through those doors.  



Cooling off - what a hot day!!

This visit led to us going to see the famous Noon Gun – Cape Town's famous cannon that booms out every day at exactly 12h00 (accurate to the nearest millisecond). 

Super excited!!






We arrived at about 11h30 at the top of Signal Hill, only to find that the cannon was not situated at the top of Signal Hill.  We decided to settle for a view from the top.  It was quite cloudy and misty but at the last moment the mist cleared and we could make out the cannon.  At 12h00 we saw a puff of smoke rise in the air and about 2 seconds later we heard the boom.  It was quite a soft boom, as we were behind the cannon.  After that we went down to go see the cannon for ourselves and the boys had a blast looking at all the long forgotten memorabilia.  


And there were puppies!!! 

Two labrador puppies!!

 We are definitely going back and hopefully we will see the cannon in action from much closer.





For more information on Chavonne's Battery Museum go to:  http://www.chavonnesmuseum.co.za/index.html

For more information on the Noon Gun go to:  http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionswc/noon-day-gun.htm

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