The return of the three black dogs

Today we hit the Fat Lady Trail in the blazing sunshine. With us are Paul and Pauline, Sue and Honey and 

Alice and Maddie.

The Leucadendron bushes were bright yellow all over the mountains. This is a male Sickle-leaved Conebush (Leucadendron xanthoconus). 

We were on our way up to find the Fat Lady Shelter at the top of Steenberg Peak. The Alph thinks I am a fat Scottie so maybe its my special shelter from the sun, which is already a bit warm for my taste.

Here is the Fat Lady Shelter, but no-one is stopping! Not even for a water break. 

Maybe they are scared of the Rock Dinosaur that guards the Fat Lady.

We just carried on and on, past these purple ericas that are out in force all over the mountain. These are Erica glabella, commonly (very common!) known as the Nude Heath. We think they deserve a more exciting name. 

We started to scale Muizenberg Peak, discovering this pink version of the Hot Chocolate Protea  (Protea lepidocarpodendron) on the way.

And lots of the normal cream coloured ones.

And this rare and unusual little pea - also a 'range restricted' Peninsula endemic, Indigofera candolleana.

Tea time! Me 'n Maddie and Alice. Devil's Peak in the background. No mist today.

Paul fired up his stove ...

I did a quick check for baboons, dassies and Sambar deer. 

And a good tea time was had by all. Sue, Honey, Paul, Pauline, the Alph, Maddie, Alice and me. And where was the idiot Lad? Nowhere to be seen. 

Time to move on. Just checking these drumsticks - but sadly, they were not the edible kind but Zaluzianskaya capensis. This weird name honours a Bohemian botanist called Adam Zaluziansky von Zaluzian (1558-1613) who lectured at Charles University in Prague.

More Rock Monsters - this one a giant Newfoundland. Or a Bouvier?

Up and up through the Nude Heaths. (Somehow it does not trip on or off the tongue that name!)

Then down again into the Steenberg valley. 

This is a good breeding place for frogs and toads. A fenced off part of the road proved to be full of frogs eggs. 

Just look at them! 

There were lots of tadpoles too. 

We could hear lots of frogs, but couldn't see any.  

Maybe having three black dogs invade your pool space was too much for them.

There was certainly lots of scope for black dogs to cool off up here. Lovely fynbos water everywhere!

The Peninsula-endemic Tree Pagodas (Mimetes fimbriifolius) bushes were coming into flower ...

Exquisite!

But all good things come to an end ...

and we had to say goodbye to our sunny happy mountain and head for home.

The idiot Lad tried to save the Alf from the lawn mower, but I was happy to have a kip and leave him to it. 

And that night we all stayed up to watch the Super Moon rise. 

It was quite illuminating.

A pup called Paddington

Meet Paddington. He is Rupert's puppy Golden Retriever brother. (And I must say I am sorry for Rupert. I do NOT like puppies!)

We went across to say hello to the nipper,

and he really was quite engaging. He wanted to show me his hole. 

Then he showed the Lad too. 

digging deeper and deeper

till he disappeared. Then I lost interest and went off to chase the cats. 

Will anyone play soccer with me? 

Lets play tug of war with this stick.

Obviously no-one wants to play soccer with Rupert. But don't despair Roops, when he grows up he will play with you just like Charlie used to. 

Views not to be mist

This morning, with the mist thick on Devil's Peak, we set out from the misty gims with Paul and Pauline and some overseas visitors of theirs who had come all the way down Africa from Dar es Salaam: Pauline's cousin Ron, his wife Kate and their friend Peter, from Australia.

Peter was hoping to see some gorillas in the mist, but I don't think we get them here. We get baboons (which I love to chase!) but I have never seen any gorillas. That would be fun. But wait! What's that black animal looming? Oh - just a dog. Ho hum. I will leave it to the eager Lad to do the honours.

Some hopeful Common Sunshine (Leucodendron salignum) flowers. Sorry chaps. No sun today.

Lots of drippy, webby purple Butterfly Bush (Muraltia heisteria) all along the contour path to Oppelskop.

And more spiderwebby stuff in these bushes.

The Berry Heath (Erica baccans) was also out in flower all along the path up to Oppelskop and back. This is a peninsula endemic - and occurs nowhere else in the whole wide world. 

Lots of wattles had popped up to say hi to the Australian visitors.

In perfect Scottie walking weather we soon came to the snary (for the Food Lady) ledge with its enticing dassie smells. On with the leads

and leading the way went the Alf and the Lad.

It was so misty that we couldn't even see the halfway down. But good smells wafted up.

The others soon caught up - here comes Pauline -

then we had to jostle with the rest of Cape Town to find a corner of breakfast Rock to shelter behind so we could have tea and Paul could get his stove lit and the water boiled.

Then before they froze (not us - we were in our element, even with our short haircuts) we marched back down the zigzags,  

past these glistening prickly Travellers Joy (Cliffortia of sorts) bushes in flower,

with little glimpses of mist views.

Waiting at the bottom of the zigzags with the Alph. 

And a group photo under the gims: Peter, Kate, the Alph, Paul, us two Scots, Pauline and Ron.

Then we popped in to see Harvey and our human brother and Kerryn for more tea,

and a game of watch me chew the toy.

I was more interested in trying out one of Harvey's many beds.

Phil and Kerryn were about to hit the high spots for lunch, so we said our fond farewells, and Laddie had to give his best little friend a kiss goodbye,

then we drove home into a rainbow to bacon and eggs, gin and tonics - and a snack of some fabulously expensive Hills Science Metabolic Diet for me and some equally fancy stuff for the Lad. It's a dogs life!