Along the Hoerikwaggo Trail

Well that was quite a walk. Thea, Sue, my two humans, Lucy-the-vet, Richard back from England, Hanneke from Holland and Dougal and I set off soon after 8 am from Constantia Nek Restaurant, and walked up this rather strange corridor between two fences with an escort of lots of jack russells and that fox terrier that Dougal wanted to lay into earlier. It was very hot and treeless as we walked up to a place that sounds a bit like my humans' serious swear word (Vlakkenberg) and I was really pleased to find 3 ladies to shelter under (you can just see me in the photo at the top). Then after a quick dip in a little stream, things got better and the fynbos came back and we eventaully got to this lovely rock with moss and orchids, and had tea while the humans oohed and aahed at the view.

The Food Lady did her usual thing with her camera, and took lots of flower photos including this Satyrium bicorne orchid (above) which has a funny common name of Ewwa Trewwa and this yellow ixia, Ixia dubia. There were lots of insects about for the Food Lady to take photos of too - this one above is of a net-winged beetle with another gogga on its back.

It got a bit hot for us, and the humans kept throwing water at us which we DON'T like. But I suppose it did cool us down, and when we came round the corner and saw Hout Bay harbour and the sea-which was just squirming with whales-there was a bit of a breeze and some shady spots to regain our Scottie composure in.

We made it down to East Fort and into the Land Rover, then we took everyone back to Constantia Nek to their cars. Then at home we all collapsed (well almost - I still had to do a bit of barking at the gate).

*for more info on net-winged beetles and other goggas, see http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/beetles/lycidae/index.htm.

More photos of Georgie, the wonderfully long-legged Bouvier who I want to be like when I grow up.

Me with Tammy

When I am not walking I like sleeping on laps. Here I am with Tammy when she visited us in Cape Town. Dougal is on the floor as he doesnt do laps unless there is thunder in the air. (I dont mind the thunder, but then Dougal is not as tough as he likes to think he is.)

Georgie

Really sad news.

Georgie the beautiful bouvier and my role model, died this morning at about 6 am of a heart attack. Luckily for her it was peacefully,and at her home. She had had a nice walk on Sunday and had eaten supper and had a normal night. Then according to Alice, her human, she just fell over this morning and was in a bit of distress until she just stopped breathing.

I will really really miss her. I know she thought I was an irritating upstart and said "Buzz off" when I was in her face too much, but I loved her and wanted to be just like her when I grew up. My humans are pretty upset too.

Georgie was 14 years old. This photo is of Georgie on one of our walks up Steenberg Peak. There is another photo of her lower down in my list of best friends too.

Puffadders and walking bones

What a weekend! We went with our humans to our grandparents's cottage in the Cederberg and Dougal showed me how to hunt for tortoises which was just amazing. They are chewing bones with legs - and there are lots of them all around the cottage. The Food Lady was a bit irritating becuase she kept on taking them away from us. Then we went for a walk and we found this long, fat snake and were just beginning to investigate it when both humans started yelling at us and dragged us away from it. Apparently its a puffadder and is definitely a no-no. We had a fantastic walk to the pools where there were lots of people - including some kids which was nice as I love kids. Dougal was a bit grumpy as he doesn't like the water - or kids. But I had a swim (not quite intentional but it cooled me down as it was very hot).

The Food Lady took lots of photos as there were lovely flowers - including lots of these Paranomus bracteolaris bushes.

Dougal and me

Just Nuisance's Grave

Last Sunday - 12 October - Lucy-the-vet, Graham from Kirstenbosch, Alpha Male (Stephen), the Food Lady (Caroline) and I (and, of course, Dougal ) walked up the 300 odd steps to pay our respects to Able Seaman Just Nuisance.

We had done a bit of scrambling through bushes and rather boring photographing of some insignificant, but apparently extremely rare and endemic little plant called Lachenalia capensis earlier, so it was a relief to eventually have some tea and our rusk.

Just Nuisance's grave is in front of some deserted old buildings which are to become the last overnight camp to be built for the 6-day Hoerikwaggo Tented Classic Hiking Trail. (See the Foodlady's post The Hoerikwaggo Trails on http://veldfloraed.blogspot.com/). On our way down again we saw a lovely waterfall that we want to come back and explore.

There is an interesting website on Just Nuisance at

www.simonstown.com/tourism/nuisance/nuisance.htm

Up Pecks

Today, for the first Sunday in WEEKS, our lazy humans took us on a Table Mountain walk - up Pecks Valley above Muizenberg. It was a lovely sunny, but chilly day - just up our streets. We have just had hair cuts and it was nice to get some of the doggy parlour smell out of us by rolling in the fynbos. We saw this lovley Gladiolus debilis as well as lots of other flowers.

Sue and Paul were there with our humans, and we met Lucy-the-Vet who joined us for the first time. Nice to have someone who understands us.