Sunnydale, Cape Town

The Fish Hoek Valley is situated in the Cape Peninsula, eighteen miles south of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the town of Fish Hoek on the False Bay coast. The valley is bound by mountains (including Chapman's Peak, Spitskop, Silvermine Mountain, and Ridge Peak) on the north; Fish Hoek Bay and False Bay on the east; mountains (including Elsie's Peak, Rooikrans, and Slangkop) on the south; and Chapman's Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. It is 13 kilometres from west to east, and between 3 and 6 kilometres from north to south. The valley has several rivers and lakes. The predominant vegetation type in this valley is endangered Hangklip Sand Fynbos. However, the sides of the valley are home to Cape Granite Fynbos, and Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos can be found higher up on the surrounding mountains. The latter two vegetation types (also both endangered) are endemic to the Cape Peninsula and can be found nowhere else in the world.Fish Hoek Valley was once rural, but today it is largely covered by suburbs and townships such as Kommetjie, Ocean View, Noordhoek, The Lakes, Masiphumelele, Capri Village, Sunnydale, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek, and Clovelly. Some rural aspects have been preserved in the form of heritage areas and parts of the Table Mountain National Park.

Masiphumelele High School is a publicly owned secondary school (grades 8–12) in Masiphumelele in the Western Cape region of South Africa. As of 2005 it had some 942 students. The school has piped indoor water. In February 2006 students of the school were involved in violent protests, which resulted injuries to two teachers and damage to three police vehicles. [1]

Capri Village is a small suburb forming part of the greater area of Noordhoek on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, situated between Kommetjie, De Oude Weg, Fish Hoek and Noordhoek.

De Oude Weg is a small residential area of Cape Town on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, situated between Kommetjie, Fish Hoek and Capri Village. It is in the suburb of Sunnydale and is situated midway between Kommetjie and Fish Hoek. Translated from Dutch, "de oude weg" means "the old road" which refers to the old dirt wagon track which, in bye gone days, passed through there. The residential area is part of Sunnydale’s first land grant to Carel George Wieser in 1743. Some of the roads in de Oude Weg are named after subsequent landowners. The de Stadler family, who did mixed farming, had ownership as early as 1864. Thereafter, three sisters namely Thelma Wood, Leonora Triggs and Olga Lock (all nee de Stadler) had ownership of the land until they sold to a poultry farmer (Hillside Poultry Farm), individual landowners and finally developers. The Booysen family have strong ties to the area, as they worked the land for many generations. Some of the properties have magnificent views of the Noordhoek Valley. The Kommetjie Road Fire Station is a good landmark to watch out for when looking for this quaint residential area.

Masiphumelele is a township on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, situated between Kommetjie, Capri Village and Noordhoek. Initially known as Site 5, the township was renamed Masiphumelele by its residents, which is a Xhosa word meaning "let us succeed". About 400-500 people first settled in the area in the 1980s. During apartheid residents were continually removed to the suburb of Khayelitsha, over 30 km away, but the numbers began to grow as apartheid began to unravel from 1990. In 1990, about 8000 residents lived in the area, mostly in shacks, but by 2005, over 26000 people lived there, many in brick homes. In 2010, the population was estimated at 38000. Many are from the old Ciskei bantustan in the Eastern Cape. Amenities are scarce, with an overcrowded school, no police station, and an understaffed day clinic, while it's estimated that 30-40% of the community are infected with HIV and/or TB. SHAWCO, the University of Cape Town Student's Health And Welfare Centres Organisation, runs weekly supplementary clinics from the Masiphumelele clinic.

Noordhoek is a seaside town in the Western Cape, South Africa, located below Chapman's Peak on the west coast of the Cape Peninsula and is approximately 35 kilometres (22 mi) to the south of Cape Town. The name "Noordhoek" was taken from Dutch and literally means "north corner". It was given this name in 1743 as being the northern corner of the Slangkop farm. The first permanent resident of European origin is Jaco Malan who built his house there. In 1857, the region was divided into six plots, most of which were bought by a single family, that of the de Villiers. Noordhoek nevertheless remains a predominantly rural area where farmers grow vegetables to supply ships calling at Simon's Town. It is best known for its shoreline and its long, wide, sandy beach, which stretches south to the neighbouring village of Kommetjie. Near the southern end of this beach is the wreck of the steamship "Kakapo", which ran aground in 1900, when the captain mistook Chapman's Peak for the Cape of Good Hope and put the helm over to port.Noordhoek can be accessed either from the scenic coastal road Chapman's Peak Drive, which leads out of Hout Bay or via the mountain road Ou Kaapse Weg which cuts through the Silvermine Nature Reserve - now part of the Table Mountain National Park. Noordhoek is a small scattered community of houses, often with sea views and has a large horse population as riding on the long sandy beach is common; the beach is a 6 km (3.7 mi) stretch of fine white sand backed by Chapman's Peak (592 m (1,942 ft)) and the Table Mountain National Park. Winds are often strong and the sea is cold and wild. The town consists of a riding stables and a scattering of villas in a wide grassy valley with oak trees. In the middle of this valley is the Noordhoek Farm Village, with craft shops, a children's playground, café, pub and restaurant.

Da Gama Park is a suburb of the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa.Da Gama Park was founded as a township in the former Simon's Town district, north-west of the town. Situated in the Else River Valley, it was established for men of the Navy and their families. It was named after Vasco da Gama (?-1524), the Portuguese navigator.

Ocean View, Cape Town, was established in 1968 as a township for coloured people who had been forcibly removed from so called "white areas" such as Simon's Town, Noordhoek, Red Hill, Glencairn by the apartheid government under the Group Areas Act. It was first called Slangkop, and the first resident moved there on 1 August 1968. It was renamed Ocean View, although the government had removed the residents from their previous seaside homes and views. As a result, its history is embedded in apartheid, and there is still bitter resentment among many people there.It is located between the community of Kommetjie to its west and Imhof's Gift and Masiphumelele to its east.

Fish Hoek (Afrikaans: Vishoek, meaning either Fish Corner or Fish Glen) is a coastal town at the eastern end of the Fish Hoek Valley on the False Bay side of the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape, South Africa. Previously a separate municipality, Fish Hoek is now part of the City of Cape Town. As a coastal suburb of Cape Town, Fish Hoek is popular as a residence for commuters, retired people and holidaymakers alike. The traditional industries of 'trek' fishing and angling coexist with the leisure pursuits of surfing, although nearby Kommetjie is usually favoured, sailing and sunbathing. There is an active lifeguard community who utilise the beach and bay for training.

Fynbos (; Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈfɛinbos] lit. 'fine plants') is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting of about 80% (8,500 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it.

The Cape Floral Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province. The Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognised floral kingdoms of the world, is an area of extraordinarily high diversity and endemism, and is home to over 9,000 vascular plant species, of which 69 percent are endemic. Much of this diversity is associated with the fynbos biome, a Mediterranean-type, fire-prone shrubland. The economical worth of fynbos biodiversity, based on harvests of fynbos products (e.g. wildflowers) and eco-tourism, is estimated to be in the region of R77 million (~US$5 million) a year. Thus, it is clear that the Cape Floristic Region has both economic and intrinsic biological value as a biodiversity hotspot.

Chapman's Peak is a mountain on the western side of the Cape Peninsula, between Hout Bay and Noordhoek in Cape Town, South Africa. The western flank of the mountain falls sharply for hundreds of metres into the Atlantic Ocean, and a road, known as Chapman's Peak Drive, hugs the near-vertical face of the mountain, linking Hout Bay to Noordhoek. Tourists and locals often stop at viewpoints along this road, which offer views of Hout Bay, The Sentinel Peak and surrounds, as well as over Noordhoek Beach. Chapman's Peak Drive is part of the route of two of South Africa's biggest mass-participation races, the Cape Argus Cycle Race and the Two Oceans Marathon.