For the Dogs

Some signs just speak for themselves – come to think of it, that’s what the’re all supposed to do – like this one, seen recently in Newlands Forest, and posted by members of the Cape’s Working on Fire helicopter team, who live in the forest with their choppers, on standby to save the city at any given moment, such as when they did during the great Table Mountain fire earlier this year. One wonders about the size and number of the doggie middens that prompted their desperate message!

Newlands forest, by the way, is a great place to go walking and hiking – provided it’s not raining. (Newlands gets the most rain of any place in the city.) You can walk over to Kirstenbosh Gardens in one direction, over to the University of Cape town in the other, up to Maclear’s Beacon (Table Mountain’s highest point), or just stroll along the contour paths.

Getting to the forest is easy, if you have a car: drive along the M3 highway (map) until you see the turnoff, which will take you toward the mountain. Most hiking books sold in local bookstores have reasonable Newlands Forest hiking maps.