Big Chief Hoerikwaggo

As a special treat on Father's Day, Dougal and I took our Alpha Male/father on the most fantastic walk. We left the Land Rover at Wolwekop Carpark and drove back to Boyes Drive where we went up the Mole Path (although the humans insist on calling it the mule path!) with Paul, Pauline and the Food Lady.

The distant mountains across False Bay were really looking like "Mountains in the Sea" which is the Khoi name for the Table Mountain chain of mountains, "Hoerikwaggo".

There were lots of birds (like this female Orange-breasted Sunbird) and insects making a racket in the wonderful warm sunshine.
This sundew was trying its best to catch some of the goggas but not doing terribly well. We think its Drosera hilaris. Dougal and I were also doing our best to catch some of the rodents and dassies that we could smell. We got so excited we were quite out of breath - and check the mad look in Dougal's eyes! I tried to keep my po-face (not sure if its a potty-face or a poker-face but probably a mixture!). Paul was excited by the beautiful light in the forest and took lots of photos in the deep, dark, dwarf forest of Spes Bona. The Food Lady thought she'd lost me and she also got all excited and stared calling me but I had just run on ahead.

I was a bit scared of this face on the cliff watching me. I think it must be Big Chief Hoerikwaggo with his mountains in the sea in the background.

We soon lost him, and had tea on the top, which was good today - a nice flat area to roam around with drinking pools and rooibos and cranberry rusks with dates - although we don't like the dates. Dougal was so exhausted with all the hunting for mice that he had a little nap.

Way over to the west we could see some mist rolling in from the sea (with apologies to the Paul McCartney) but it was still warm and sunny but not hot at all - just perfect for scotties. And even the purple erica was perfect for us scotties as we are genetically wired to identify with heather.

The humans liked all the King Proteas (Protea cynaroides) that grow around here but I think they must belong to Big Chief Hoerikwaggo as they are rather LARGE. I prefer the ericas.

This is the Sticky Heath (Erica urna-viridis) which is a rare and endemic erica that only occurs on the mountains of the Cape Peninsula. You can see Chapman's Peak in the background.
The path was truly wonderfully beautiful today - with lots of interesting smells for us and just the right height for hunting in. You can see the mast at the top of Constantiaberg in the background. We've been there too! Paul was carried away with the waterfall and used up his last film on it.

Then it was down the last primrose path where we tried a bit of dalliance but the Food Lady was having none of that and we were bundled back into the car and home we went ...
past all the flag sellers which reminded us that we had better watch the New Zealand-Italy soccer match later so we can report back to Nicola and her disgusting cat Jefferey.

Click here for route.