10 October 2011

Mink and Manure

Yay, our favourite place in all the world! The Constantia Greenbelt. Not quite on top of Table Mountain but on the slopes of our favourite mountain in all the world. (You can see it in the background.) That's me with my tail up in Le Sueur Meadow. Sue came with us - me, Doog, Dawnie and the humans - and we met Pauline here.
Sue was happy to see that the river was called the Pilot River, which was good because the humans were all feeling rather depressed as the referee in the world cup match let the inferior Australian rugby team win over our vastly superior Bokke. What with the two best teams, Scotland and South Africa, out of the running, there is not much left to keep our interest. We hope, for the Alph's sister's sake, that New Zealand thumps the rest, although our human brother is rather hoping that France will win. I also like France because I am named after Coco Chanel - who is famous for inventing the little black number.
Squirrels and other dogs kept Dougal happy, and me and Dawnie were happy to dip into the Pilot River to cool off as today was fiercely hot.
This part is called the Alphen Trail. The Greenbelts are managed by Cape Town City Parks, and they are an absolute pleasure, even though the Food Lady calls them a giant puppy class because of all the other dogs. But that's what we dogs just LOVE.
There are not many indigenous plants, but lots of pretty flowers like these nasturtiums from South America,
and these Allium triquetrum weeds from Europe that just love shady spots.
We then crossed the road to rub shoulders with the mink and manure set (here is the manure part of the equation with the mink part on its back) and set off on the Klaasenbosch Trail which we haven't done for ages as it is quite quiet and secluded and the we like to have the Alph with us when we do.
This part of the Greenbelt is famous for having a few of the rare and endangered Knysna Warblers that we have heard a few times but never seen. The Alph is reading a noticeboard all about them.
The warm air was heavily perfumed with fragrant jasmine (originally from Asia) which belongs to the olive family. Of course, being a dog, I preferred the scent of fresh horse manure - in fact it was so tantalising, I ate some.
We looked at the large and loud houses - this was about the nicest one - a couple of acres of Cape Dutch house, the stables of which were ten times bigger than our humans' whole house and garden put together! and we decided we could just cope with this "little" garden cottage behind the barred fence of this large estate.
We ventured deeper into the forest ...
with large spreading tree ferns that come from Tasmania ,
and parasitic plants like the Branched Broomrape (Orobanche ramosa) that originally comes from the Mediterranean area.
Soon we had looped the loop and come back to familiar territory, but sadly that meant our walk was just about over.
A quick drink from the drinking fountain,
then the Alph had to chase us back to the Land Rover!

1 comment: