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.
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