Lost in the forest

Uh oh, they are going off in the Land Rover WITHOUT US. How can that be! Hey! You have forgotten something! Come back! Nope, we have been abandoned today. How depressing.
Turns out they had quite a tough walk so maybe it was just as well. Pauline, Paul and Thea came and they went up the Great Dog Highway to the top past some Orgidekies (Disa bracteata) which is a seriously bad weed in Australia. (And we don't care as after the rugby, and after stealing our Acacia name, Australia deserve everything they get!)
Thea and Pauline on the Great Dog Highway with some alien grass along the way.
Fonteinbos (Psoralea pinnata)
and Psoralea aculeata.
A stinky little orchid (Satyrium pumilum) that smells like rotting meat to attracts fly pollinators.
And while the FL was snapping away at flowers, Paul was more interested in Mandelbrot set patterns like this lichen,
while Thea demonstrated what another lichen, old Man's Beard, is all about ...
The Food Lady then dragged them through wet slippery forests, and through deep dark caves
with strange dinosaur-bird rock monsters,
and over slippery rocks with drippy branches overhead, draped in Old Man's Beard. Not for Scots.
Tea on the top - Pauline, Thea, Paul and the Alph.
The FL was happy to see lots of these impressive Sissies - which is what the Alpha calls Dougal when he is reduced to jelly if he hears the tiniest of popping noises. Their real name is Brachysiphon fucatus and they like growing on the top of the mountain. Grootkop is in the background.
Not really Scottie-friendly territory. This is on the edge overlooking Orange Kloof - Grootkop sticking up on the left.
Then they really went over the top and came back along the cliff face
with good views back to Hout Bay.
This little fern was to commemorate the victory of the All Blacks over the Aussies (thanks to the cellphone link with our human brothers).
On the edge - Paul doing some fractal photography,
and Thea crawling through yet another cave.
They stopped for a snack and to admire the view, and this little fynbos ant ran away with a piece of peanut.
The FL thinks this may be the Peninsula Conebush (Leucadendron strobilnum) - one of the Table Mountain endemics but she needs Alice to come back on the walks!
Pseudoselago quadrangularis.
The Sky Dam - De Villiers Dam - where we have had many interesting dog encounters on the Great Dog Highway.
Star-eyed Aristea (Aristea spiralis) on the way back to the car. And they were both rather tired so we never got to go our for a walk until the next morning. It's a dog's life!

Apologies for the late blog but we have been having Internet problems.