He who runs with wolves

Waiting for Pauline in the drizzle this morning

so that we could drive to Red Hill where we were going to link up with Alice and Maddie and Pippa and Claude. (It being too wet to attempt our new walk through unexplored territory - which we will save for next week's walk.) Red Hill was lovely - no more rain - but all wet and sparkly.

A new daisy for the Food Lady's Peninsula Lifer's List - Spikeleaf Ragwort (Senecio triqueter).

Some Altydbos (Staavia radiata) from the Bruniaceae or Blacktip family.

Tea and waiting for the Bouviers, with Pauline and the Alf. Me and the Lad having a drink and a biscuit. 

A visit from the Wolf Dog who the humans have encountered before. He and the Lad made friends, but then the Lad ran after them when they all ran off after Zandra, with the Food Lady in hot pursuit, shouting fearsomely and being totally ignored by the Lad. Eventually Zandra stopped and caught him for the Food Lady. Whooo but was he in trouble!

The Food Lady composed herself by looking at this beautiful Sticky Heath (Erica viscaria).

But for the rest of the walk, the Lad was on the Lead.

This walk is insanely full of ericas. There must have been at least 15 species, like this Erica pulchella, 

but I was more interested in hunting for tortoises. Not with much success, but I did find some tasty bergie pate to sample, which didn't win me any brownie points. At least I don't roll in it like someone else we know ...

Another erica - the Hangertjie (Erica plukenetii).

and some glittery Common Sunshine Conebushes (Leucadendron salignum).

Yet another erica - the Smooth Heath (Erica glabella).

Mmm - what have we here?

Oh no, not one of these tricky wooden things. When you have such a long body, its difficult to co-ordinate front and back legs when treading on poles. But we made it over. Pretty Struthiola bushes in the foreground.

And another erica - this one Erica abietina.

Pippa and Alice - who had eventually caught us up - with the Bouviers, who were very well behaved. So despite a few hitches, it was a lovely walk, and we look forward to some exploring next week if the weather is good.

Honey - snakes, mongooses, buck - and getting into sh*t

Last weekend - we drove down to Riversong with Sue and Honey,

 stopping for sandwiches and a comfort break in Ceres.

When we arrived it was hot, so we found our cool cave. The Lad and I are sometimes friends now.

The Alph and Louis took down the broken geyser.

And Sue and the Food Lady spotted a snake in front of the cottage. Its a Cape Centipede Eater and isn't dangerous.

We went for an afternoon stroll to the river to swim.

And came back with firewood

for the braai.

The next morning we set off on an early morning walk - with long spooky bushman painting shadows that worried me a bit, but no-one else was bothered by them. We flushed out a scrub hare, which was most exciting, but the Food Lady stopped us from chasing it which was most unsporting of her.

Later on the Lad found some unmentionable stuff to roll in, perhaps to get his own back from being stopped in his hot and happy pursuit of the Scrub Hare. He was shouted at and taken off to the river for a cleaning session with lots of exclaiming and swearing,

and the Alph got his camera wet when he accidently stepped into a puddle right up to this middle, but he was very restrained we thought. Here he is emptying the water out of his boots. (The camera is still not working though.)

We saw some Candelabra Flowers (Brunsvigia striata - formerly B. minor),

but then I decided I didn't want to walk any further along the road

so we turned off into the Slangbos field, and made for the pool

where the Lad and I had a lovely cooling wade

and Sue admired the Cape Weaver's nests in the gum trees.

A boozy lunch, with delicious bread brought by Sue to tempt the Tim Noakes eating plan out of the Alph. Followed by an afternoon nap, then, joy of all joys, an evening walk.

Fluffy seeds of the Laurel-leaf Protea (Protea laurifolia),

and where they came from.

While everyone was swimming, I took the opportunity to run up the hill to join this happy group of wine-tasters and their dogs. The Food Lady soon discovered where I was but she couldn't get too cross because everyone was watching. So we all had a lovely chat in the late evening light

before heading home.

And when we got back to the cottage, we dogs smelled SOMETHING that had been visiting the cottage while we were out. Not sure what, but the Food Lady spotted it on a rock far away in the fading evening light.

If you look carefully in the middle of the camera frame, you will see the grey outline of a what is most probably a Cape Grey Mongoose.

The Lad trying to kill his lead as we set out for our Sunday morning walk.

"Its ok, I've killed it."

An early flower on a Laurel-leaf Protea.

And WHAT can I smell! Seconds later I had flushed a huge great BUCK out of the bush, but the Food Lady didn't get a photo of it because she was too busy trying to stop us disappearing onto the next farm after our Rhebok. SO EXCITING! We were super-hyped up after that and were dog-marched home on leads.

Later we went for a last walk to the river. Here is Honey eventually venturing in. 

We saw a pretty frilly Autumn Painted Lady (Gladiolus brevifolius) on the way home, but no more animals - and sadly - not ONE tortoise did we find.

Lad having a rest in our cave

while Sue and the Food Lady indulged in ciders.

Lad found a better spot to put his feet up,

and Honey had a turn in the cave. But she was a bit large to fit in it properly.

All too soon it was time to climb back into the Land Rover and head for home - with one stop on the Breede River for a leg stretch.