Painting the hills red

A cool and windy morning - good black Scot weather. We drove up to Red Hill where we met Tess and Thea, Honey and Sue, Pauline and her neighbour Wytske and my bestie-Bouv Maddie - and Alice. This is one of our best walks - lots of soft sand,

and low vegetation which is excellent for rodent and tortoise hunting. And lots of flowers for the Food Lady - like these Lady's Hands (Cyanella hyacinthoides) in the summer grass.

Lad and Tessa hopped up onto a handy rock to see where we were heading.

Oohs and aahs - booooring for dogs - over some little blue orchid past its prime - Disa purpurascens.

More fun for us was meeting another pack - the Wolf's pack. Lots to say and sniff.

Another orchid for the Food Lady - one of the Cinderella Orchids - possibly Acrolopia lamellata. Do they look like glass slippers?

Thea brought some of her signature sandwiches for the humans to enjoy - while we had to make do with dog biscuits.

Tea with a view back to Chapmans Peak: Alice, Maddie, Pauline, Thea, me, the Alph, Pauline and Honey. Lad and Tessa where deep in the fynbos somewhere.

More flowers growing in the sand - causing many delays and a cross Alph. This is Pelargonium longifolium,

and Bloucabong (Lapeirousia corymbosa) that wasn't open properly as it was too windy and chilly for them.

Me looking perky - and considering my options as to which way to go.

An early flowering Erica viscaria (formerly E. decora),

and what looks like a five-legged spider inside this Roella ciliata  but which is actually part of the flower.

All of a sudden we were amongst thousands of purple-red Erica multumbellifera bushes. There was something lurking in there ...

While the Food Lady photographed this grey Petalacte coronata,

I carried on with my exciting tortoise-hunt.

By this stage Thea had discarded her shoes.

The squeaky call of the Cape Sugarbird always trick us Scots into thinking there are small mammals of some sort hiding in the bushes.

Homeward bound.

And a swim for Maddie 'n me in the Lewis Gay Dam at the end of a lovely walk.

Tessa and Lad not too sure about the little waves lapping on the rocks. Such drips!

Most of us piled into the Land Rover to get back to the cars,

and the Food Lady went with Maddie in Alice's car.

We all helped Thea jump-start her car, and we were soon on our way home.