South African Naval College

Gordon's Bay (Afrikaans: Gordonsbaai) is a harbour town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is included in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality as a suburb of the Helderberg region (formerly called Hottentots Holland). It is situated on the shores of Gordon's Bay in the northeastern corner of False Bay about 58 km from Cape Town to the south of the N2 national road and is named after Robert Jacob Gordon (1743–1795), the Dutch explorer of Scottish descent.Gordon's Bay is the smallest of three towns in the Helderberg region (Somerset West, Strand and Gordon's Bay), so named after the Helderberg Mountain which is part of the Hottentots-Holland Mountains which border the locality on two sides. Gordon's Bay was originally named "Fish Hoek", many years before the town of the same name, located on the western side of False Bay, was founded. Evidence of this can be seen on the outside wall of the local Post Office. Gordon's Bay consists of the old village, situated around the old harbour and Bikini Beach, the mountainside on the lower slopes of the Hottentots-Holland mountains overlooking False Bay, and the low-lying suburbs close to the main beach, making up the most recent expansion of the town. The older part of Gordon's Bay includes the South African Naval College, a junior officer training center adjacent to the old harbour and yacht marina. Above the harbour on the mountainside is an emblem of a giant anchor and the letters "GB" assembled from painted stones which stands for General Botha, the name of the earlier training base, SATS General Botha, which was also the original name of the naval station in the town. The Steenbras Dam, one of Cape Town's suppliers of drinking water, is located behind the mountain above the town. Gordon's Bay has a blue flag beach, Bikini Beach, to the south of the harbour, which is generally popular, particularly with students from the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. The beach is funded by the City of Cape Town to properly maintain facilities that include public showers, changing rooms, bathrooms and a grassy promenade. The beach is considered safe and is regularly patrolled by a seasonal security guard.

The Steenbras Dam ("STEE-un bruss"), now referred to as Steenbras Lower Dam, is a gravity concrete arch type dam located in the Hottentots-Holland mountains, above Gordons Bay, near Cape Town in South Africa. It is one of the six large dams that make up the Western Cape Water Supply System. It is owned by the City of Cape Town and serves principally to supply water to that city. The dam wall is 28 metres (92 ft) high and 412 metres (1,352 ft) long; it impounds a reservoir of 36,133 megalitres (1,276.0×10^6 cu ft) over a surface area of 380 hectares (940 acres) when full.In 1916 a Board of Engineers was appointed to report on a water augmentation scheme for the City of Cape Town. Their proposal was the Steenbras scheme which would consist of a concrete gravity and arch dam on the Steenbras River. This dam would be connected to the Molteno reservoir through a tunnel in the Hottentots Holland mountains and a 64 kilometre long cast iron pipeline. Work began on the scheme in 1918 and was completed three years later. The Steenbras scheme could supply Cape Town with up to 42 million litres of water per day although the average consumption was in the region of 29 million litres per day. The consumption however grew rapidly and it was not long before Cape Town once again had a water supply problem. To solve the demand for additional water supplies the Steenbras dam wall was raised and an additional pipeline was laid into the city. This work was completed in 1928. For much of the first half of the twentieth century it was the main reservoir for Cape Town but is now only one of many dams that supply the city. The hazard potential of Steenbras has been ranked high (3). The dam is on the Steenbras River, which, in common with most rivers in the Western Cape, has a low sediment load and delivers water of very high quality. The river and dam are named after the steenbras, a fish endemic to South Africa. In 1977 the Steenbras Upper Dam was constructed directly upstream. It is used for the Steenbras pumped-storage hydroelectricity scheme which supplements Cape Town's electricity supply during periods of peak demand.The City of Cape Town is investigating strengthening and raising the wall to increase Steenbras Dam's capacity.

Harmony Flats Nature Reserve is a 9-hectare (22-acre) piece of protected land, located between Strand and Gordon's Bay, South Africa. It protects a surviving fragment of critically endangered Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos vegetation.Harmony Flats was originally established to preserve a habitat for the rare and declining geometric tortoise (Psammobates geometricus). This tortoise is now locally extinct, but the reserve still protects about 220 species of plants (many of them endangered) as well as a range of animal species, such as the tiny parrot-beaked tortoise (Homopus areolatus), various snakes and a large variety of birds. This is one of the few remaining spots of the critically endangered vegetation type Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos. Local volunteers and community organisations are now heavily involved in protecting and managing the reserve.

The Steenbras Power Station, also Steenbras Hydro Pump Station, is a 180 MW pumped-storage hydroelectric power station commissioned in 1979 in South Africa. The power station sits between the Steenbras Upper Dam and a small lower reservoir on the mountainside below. It acts as an energy storage system, by storing water in the upper reservoir during off-peak hours and releasing that water to generate electricity during peak hours. The City of Cape Town uses the power station for load balancing and to mitigate against loadshedding caused by the South African energy crisis. This power station is reported to be the first pumped-storage hydroelectric power station to be built on the African continent.

Steenbras Upper Dam is an earth-fill type dam located in the Hottentots Holland Mountains above Gordons Bay in the Western Cape, South Africa. It impounds the Steenbras River upstream of the older Steenbras Dam. The dam was constructed in 1977 for the City of Cape Town and serves mainly for municipal and industrial use. The hazard potential of the dam has been ranked high (3). Steenbras Upper Dam also functions as the upper reservoir of the city's Steenbras pumped-storage hydroelectric power scheme, with a lower reservoir at the foot of the mountain. It is also linked by an open canal and pipeline to the Rockview Dam, which acts as the upper reservoir of the Palmiet Pumped Storage Scheme, a separate pumped-storage scheme operated by Eskom and the Department of Water and Sanitation. The link allows water from the Palmiet River to be transferred to the dam.

Lwandle (from a Zulu word meaning "ocean") is a township in Strand, a town in the eastern part of the Cape Town Metro in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Administratively it is a suburb of the City of Cape Town. Under Apartheid it was a group area for black people and is still predominantly populated by this community.

Lwandle/Nomzamo is a small township in the Helderberg basin just outside Strand in the Western Cape of South Africa. Both names are sometimes used interchangeably referring to both places. This may be attributed to the fact that Nomzamo was born as a result of overpopulation in Lwandle area which initially designed as a cheap accommodation for "single male workers" during the apartheid years.

False Bay High School is a private school in the Strand of the Western Cape province of South Africa, founded by Herman and Lisa Janse van Rensburg in January 1999. It was originally established in Somerset West but later moved to its current permanent location in the Strand.

Strand (Afrikaans for 'beach') is a seaside resort town in the Western Cape, South Africa. It forms part of the Helderberg region of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, situated on the north-eastern edge of False Bay and near the foot of the Helderberg Mountains. Its geographical position is between Somerset West and Gordon's Bay, and is about 50 km southeast of Cape Town City Bowl. Strand has a population of approximately 50,000. Strand's main attraction is the beach; 5 km of white sandy beach off False Bay. Strand is often referred to as The Strand (Afrikaans: Die Strand), which is the old name of the town. The vehicle registration code for Strand is CEY and the postal code for street addresses is 7140.

Hoërskool Strand (English: Strand High School) is an Afrikaans high school located in Strand, South Africa. 1 089 students attend the school, mostly residents of Strand, although students from as far as Gordon's Bay, Somerset West, and even Grabouw attend the school. The school is the major provider of secondary education in the area and is headmastered by Mr Danie Malan, that took the lead from former headmaster Mr Christiaan Klopper. With the post-war growth of the Hottentots Holland district, in 1962 a second High School (Afrikaans medium) was opened, which mainly served the Strand. Hoërskool Strand has four quarters in a school year, from January to December. The school provides classes from grade eight to grade twelve (the latter also known as matric).

Sir Lowry's Pass is a mountain pass on the N2 national road in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It crosses the Hottentots Holland Mountains between Somerset West and the Elgin valley, on the main route between Cape Town and the Garden Route. A railway line also crosses the mountain range near this point. The pass is 4 lanes wide and is subject to heavy traffic, especially at the start and end of holiday periods when many people travel in and out of the Cape Town area, and is sometimes seen as an accident black spot.The summit of the pass is at 460 m. There is a viewpoint at this point which is also used as a paragliding launch point. Baboons are often seen in this area. The top of the pass was formerly the start of the Boland Hiking Trail, but this section of the trail was closed after a number of deaths due to the difficult hiking conditions. On the Grabouw side, the road passes the Steenbras Dam. Sir Lowry's Pass Village is situated near the base of the pass.

Sir Lowry's Pass Village is a town near the base of Sir Lowry's Pass, about 60 km from Cape Town, South Africa.