This Sunday we left a car on Tafelberg Road - and just look at the queue to go up Table Mountain at 7h30 in the morning. Already the sun was high and the heat starting to beat down.
We met Pauline and Paul, and Phil and Kerryn outside their new house in Vredehoek, and set off up the road past this rather scary snary quarry,
up and up (their house in one of the white buildings in the middle of the photo) - Lions Head in the distance,
and up and up (the Imbecile on the lead because he kept diving into the veld after reptiles and even found a little snake)
till we came to some cannons and a bench to sit on and have a drink and catch our breath in the shadow of Devils Peak. We would love to know more about these cannons but the Food Lady cant find anything yet.
We crossed over Tafelberg Road (closed to cars up here), and walked into the coolth of forest beneath fiery red cliffs.
Some fairy footprints in the rock.
And found a place to have tea at the edge of a stream. Paul, Kerryn, the Alf, Pauline, me and Phil.
Wise words from the fairies.
Phil took a photo of moi.
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And the Food Lady took a photo of this Pea Blue butterfly (Lampides boeticus) on a Pseudoselago serrata flower.
And a Blister Beetle and small gogga on a Watsonia.
And a most amazing flower that apparently isn't meant to be here but is invading us from South America. It is the Blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea) and you can read more about it and why its called a passion flower here.
Looking back on where we had walked from.
Welcome shade.
Fiery hot flowers of the Red Crassula or Red Stonecrop (Crassula coccinea).
Kerryn taking artistic shots, with Lions Head - seething with people no doubt - in the background.
The flowers and the colours were driving the humans crazy, but luckily, being a dog, I cant see colour so was able to concentrate on the dassie and lizard smells instead. These are Wild Dagga (Leonotis leonurus) flowers.
The rather ugly name of Bladder Cell Stonecrop (Crassula pruinosa) doesn't describe these pretty flowers that line the paths and sprawl over the rocks up here.
Coming round the corner, and into the sun.
Lucky for this Southern Rock Agama (Agama atra) he wasn't spotted by Laddie or me!
A yellow Flower Crab Spider on an Tephrosia capensis plant - all smaller than the Food Lady's fingernail. These little Thomisidae spiders can change colour to suit the flower they are hiding on while waiting to ambush visiting insects. Obviously this one hasn't quite mastered the art ...
A Red Heath (Erica abietina subsp. abietina) reminding us now HOT it was getting,
but luckily we had the Land Rover waiting at the bottom of the zigzags for us.
It took us a while to negotiate through all the happy peeps waiting at the Lower Cable Station to go up Table Mountain,
but eventually we got past,
and made our way to Phil and Kerryn's house where we did a bit of exploring in their garden with Paul,
and
some barking at the neighbour's Yorkies.
Kerryn and Phil made tea,
and we all tried out their dining room table,
and their sofa, and their whisky ...
until it was time to go home.
Bye bye Kerryn, Bye bye Phil. (And in the background you can see Devils Peak and Oppels Kop where we walked.)
That evening we came back to the city to visit Luna and her humans in Sea Point. Here we all are having a walk along the promenade: Gordon, Luna, David, Me, the Alf and the Lad.
Then we went back to their stylish apartment for sundowners and dinner.
