Stappies up Trappies and hunks of ham

What? Walkies you say? With Maddie and Honey? Do I want to come? Are you kidding?

We parked in Kalk Bay - as the Alf doesn't trust the skollies up on Boyes Drive where the Land Rover AND Robbie's car were broken into not so long ago. Then we walked up with Sue and Honey, Alice and Maddie, and Thea, through the cobbled streets of Kalk Bay (could that be a skolly shadow I see on the right?),

and didn't really have time to ponder the absence of Dougal as the Alf urged us on ...

and up Echo Valley - turning left at the second path till we came to the Rock Arch. Here are Maddie and me waiting for everyone to catch up.

Going through the Rock Arch cave - with Fish Hoek in the distance.

Sue and Honey in the cave.

And this is the Food Lady's restio. She thinks its Elegia juncea.

Teatime in the fynbos overlooking Fish Hoek valley with delicious prosciutto, or was it Serrano? ham sandwiches from Thea, divine crunchies from Sue and a great big bar of Toblerone from Alice. (Not that we black dogs had anything but dog biscuits.) Thea, Honey, Sue, the Alph, Maddie's backside and Alice.

Another hill to conquer: Trappieskop.

On the way the Foodlady saw: Metalasia divergens,

Thesium viridifolium,

a really pretty little Common Babiana (Babiana ambigua),

and the tiny flowers of the Confetti Bush (Coleoenema album) that was just starting to blossom. Spring is most definitely in the air. 

The view from the top of Trappieskop looking over Fish Hoek where our human cousins were having fun on their Malibu boards.

Three Black Dogs on top! Admiring the view from the beacon on the top of Trappieskop.

And lets look over the other way too. (Actually, we were checking for dassies and baboons.)

When we got all the way down again, we went for beers and tapas in Kalk Bay at La Parada, and on the way we encountered a dog that was really really wired,

as well as some literary offerings on the pavement.

La Parada is my kind of shop - just check at what is hanging from the ceiling! Legs of ham. (This is not the FL's photo - its from a cool blog that you can read by clicking here. The Phood Lady's was too blurred to use.)

Cheers. Me and Honey were under the table - and judging by the blurry photo, maybe the Phood Lady was too! Maddie had gone for a swim with Alice. Just as well as Alice is a vegetarian, but apparently these hams are all ethically sourced from Karoo free-range pigs.

Me n Maddie explore Mimetes Valley

Meeting Maddie this morning for a rather chilly and wet walk up into the Kalk Bay mountains. We are only two black dogs today as Honey couldn't come. 

While it rained we sheltered in the car and watched some surfers surfing in the rainbow. It certainly banished some of our blues for a while.

When the rain stopped we crossed the road and entered the deep dark forest

where we found a delightfully stinky Stinkhorn fungus; no rolling was allowed though.

Onwards and upwards we trotted - me and Maddie upfront,

past this scrambling Tar Pea (Bolusafra bituminosa) and lots more pretty flowers for the Food Lady.

Uh oh, RAIN! Blowing in from the sea.

But in the other side, the rainbow.

Mimetes Valley is full of these Mimetes flowers

and bushes.

It started to rain so we ducked into Muizenberg Cave for tea and shelter,

but eventually we had to get going - and wet.

But not for long, luckily, because the Food Lady had started to moan about her wet shoes.

A cheerful red stem on a protea - we wondered if this was normal.

Down the road to the Dog Rock path.

The Food Lady has decided to try and identify one restio per walk and the one today - complete with stick insect - is the Cushion Restio (Elegia stipularis).

Almost down and still dry.

Another black dog

This is Jethro, our English cousin. Please excuse the bow he says, it was put on by his human sister.

The three black dogs climb Elsie's Peak

On Sunday, us three black dogs met at the top of Ravine Steps in Fish Hoek, and set off up the path with our humans - Sue, Alice, the Alf and the Food Lady.

Looking down on a Glistening Ink Cap (Coprinus micaceus). As it was quite warm, I wondered if there were any fairies under there, but there were none.

And, still in a whirl, a budding Gold Spiderhead (Serruria villosa).

Where were we going? Why, up Elsie's Peak of course. To look for a very rare and endangered flower that we've seen before, but like to see it when it flowers.

Wat is this? No. This is a protea hybrid between the naturally occurring Protea lepidocarpodendron and a planted Protea neriifolia. (For more about it, go to iSpot.)

Was it this then? Yay - found! The rare and endangered False Heath (Audouinia capitata) flowering jauntily, and we even found another bush further down the path too.

Looking down on Glencairn all the way back to Simons Town.

Another unusual flower - the Small Mountain Dahlia (Liparia parva) which is not a dahlia but a pea and it is pollinated by mice.

Tea below the peak. The Alf, Sue, Honey, Alice and Maddie.

Maddie checking for dassies and lizards. We share a taste for the finer things in life like tormenting dassies and lizards. (Although we haven't had much luck as yet but it doesn't stop us from trying.) Dougal was a mouse man, but we black dogs are lizard and dassie and baboon aficionados. (Actually Honey is not sure what she is yet, but give her time.)

Another whirly spiderhead - the Wynberg Spiderhead (Serruria cyanoides). It is also rare and endangered, and endemic to the Cape Peninsula and nowhere else.

Spring in the air? Some little Babiana villosula flowers opening up in the sunshine - which was becoming quite fierce!

We walked right under the cliffs which was very exciting as there were lots of dassies and black lizards skittering and shouting at us. Maddie tried hard to climb the cliff but Alice pulled her back.

After all those exertions in the hot sun, we settled down in some shade for a drink.

Then down the road past the shark spotters and the posh houses,

back to ravine steps. Sue and Honey had a lunch date, so left in Sue's zooty little white car,

and we went back to Alice and Maddie and Omie Dome's house for tea.

I did a spot of train-spotting. (This is the Atlantic Rail Sunday Steam Train.)