Lost

Apologies for the late post but things have been a bit hectic and busy at home - and due to my lack of opposable thumbs, I cannot operate the computer without help. But we are getting there ...

LAAAAAST Sunday we went for a walk up the Old Mole Path (still no evidence of moles!) to Echo Valley, via the Jojolu Path and the Amphitheatre to Spes Bona forest and back down the Old Mole Path. Harvey, as you see, was very happy to see Tessa, who joined us with Thea. Phil, Alice and Maddie came too, and so did Paul and Pauline.

It was rather misty to start with - we  could hardly make out the beach huts on St James Beach far below.

But it was sunny it patches, and the flowers were out - lots of shiny yellow Gansgras (Cotula coronopifolia),

some rather special Satyrium bicallosum orchids,

Red Hot Pokers (Kniphohia uvaria) coming up through the burnt bushes along the stream,

and lots of fire-loving Appelkoostulp (Moraea ochroleuca) on the Jojolu Track.

Halfway up - Me and Maddie with Alice - looking back down Echo Valley.

Me and the Lad exploring the entrances to the scary, snary caves. The Food Lady was a bit anxious as there are lots of caves here on Cave Peak - apparently Table Mountain has the largest sandstone cave system in southern Africa.

Paul surveying Fish Hoek in the mist from Cave Peak.

This little Fire Storksbill (Pelargonium althaeoides or chamaedryfolium or whatever - the taxonomists can't seem to be able to make up their minds on this name) is flowering everywhere in the burned veld.

More misty vistas from the top.

We went along the path that goes past the entrance to the Devils Pit cave.

Tessa and us were a bit freaked out.

Yikes! A rock monster with a gonk.

Luckily it was soon teatime and all thoughts of monsters and devils went out of my mind when the food arrived. Yummm. Biscuits from Beth,

but sadly none came my way as they are apparently human biscuits.

Harvey and me were most disappointed. I mean, that is just NOT FAIR.

The whole gang: Phil, the Alph, Harvey, Tessa, Paul, Thea, Alice, Maddy and Pauline. Not sure where that idiot Lad was - looking for a cave to fall into no doubt.

I was waiting patiently for MY Scottie biscuit!

We carried on to Spes Bona Forest where the pathetic SANParks lot haven't had the energy to replace the burned sign to the entrance to the forest - even though the fires were six months ago. (The Food Lady says they are too busy sitting on their butts in offices thinking up their idiotic forms and silly rules to get down to anything useful.)

There were a few burned planks just as you enter the forests (again, we are not sure why they haven't been replaced after six months - but maybe saving up for bigger and better cars for SANParks officials is more important than replacing two planks on our world famous Table Mountain).

Anyway, once inside, the deep dark forests were still the same - not one flame managed to get in here.

Out again into the sun - and more daisies - these ones are Wildewitmagriet (Dimorphotheca nudicaulis) with their coppery-backed flowers.

At the bottom of the Spes Bona Path, the boys were waiting for us to catch up.

The Food Lady found this large Black Girdled Lizard (missed by me or it might have been a dead large lizard!) to photograph,

while Maddie and Laddie found a Kerry Blue to play with.

We carried on down - past these Renostergousblom (Arctotis acaulis) daisies with their golden-red-backed petals,

and as it was rather hot, when the boys stopped at the bottom of the path for the others to catch up, I wandered off to look for some water ... and got a bit distracted by delicious smells and tinkling steams and good places to roll in, and some more enticing smells ...

and when I re-joined the party, there was lots of shouting and telling me I was a BAD DOG. A very, VERY bad dog to have been missing for HALF AN HOUR! And was I DEAF? OR JUST PLAIN STUPID? Did I know that I had given everyone A HEART ATTACK? And that the WHOLE BLOODY MOUNTAIN was SEARCHING for me? What a fuss.

Anyway, off we set again, with me firmly attached to a lead. The Food Lady managed to take a few more photos of the flowers - like these Satin Flowers (Geissorhiza aspera) that were out in full profusion in the warm sun.

When we got home, Phil gave us some exciting gifts from his and Kerryn's trip to London. (Kerryn was still overseas - in Canada - and Phil was off to Johannesburg the next day, so we had the crazy Boston Terrorist for another week.)

We also had a call from our human brother in Korea which always perks the humans up a lot.

I am looking forward to trying out these biscuits - this time they are for dogs and not humans.

I even got into Harvey's bed as a hint, but I am afraid that no treats are coming my way for the rest of the day as I have been such a BAD DOG.

April Fools

This morning Me, Dougal, the Alph and Food Lady, Alice and Pauline set out early to look for the April Fools in Spes Bona. Looking over False Bay - Kalk Bay immediately below. Is this an April Fool? A bright RED ant? It might be as we can't find anything in any book about it. We climbed up to Mimetes Valley where there are lovely rodent smells for us, and views for the humans and mimetes plants for Alice. You can just see Cape Point sticking out in the sun to the left of the Simon's Town mountains.

This is one of those strange fynbos endemics - the Grey Stilbe (Stilbe vestita) that only occurs in fynbos in the extreme southwestern Cape. The whole family is called Stilbaceae and it mostly occurs in the fynbos but apparently includes a few forest species too.

Can't wait to taste some of the eau-de-vie in Nellie's Pool.

A mean looking Spotted Blister Beetle (Ceroctis capensis) eating away at an Autumn Pipes (Gladiolus brevifolius).

Us waiting for the stragglers.

Me guarding the rusks at tea.

Tea overlooking False Bay. The Alpha Male, Pauline and Alice - with the Food Lady on the other side of the camera and Dougal and me running to see if she has a piece of rusk for us. (Dawnie already at her feet waiting ...)

Then we were passed by an interesting group of people.

Hey, they are calling me! I ZAPPED off to see but discovered that they also have a chocolate coloured lab called Coco - also after Coco Chanel! But she wasn't nearly such a cute little black number as me.

After tea we set off again up the mountain to Kalk Bay Peak - or known in our house as "Sam's Nemesis" because this is where the Food Lady once nearly walked our predecessor - Sam the lab - to an early death by dehydration! Luckily he survived to walk lots more and died peacefully a few years later. This is me looking down into Spes Bona Forest in the kloof far below.

Although she looks nearly dead too - Dawnie is actually a tough old duck!

And once over the top and into the forest - we saw lots and lots of April Fools (Haemanthus coccineus). I was not sure what to expect, but they were rather odd little flowers that looked like someone had plonked a few plastic flowers in the leaf litter - they are just stalks with flowers on top. The leaves come out later. Apparently the flowers bloom in autumn hoping to attract butterflies and sunbirds to pollinate them, and then the seeds mature quite quickly so that by the time it starts raining in winter, they are ready to germinate.

Me taking a botanical interest in these foolish flowers.

Dougal taking an interest in the rodents. (Lots of shouting from the Food Lady as she is scared he will disappear down into a cave.)

Then we came out of the forest and into the sun. There was a lot of bangs and explosions going on that rather unnerved us all but the Food Lady said it was all part of the SA Navy Birthday festivities in Simon's Town.

Looking back up the way we had just come. All the trees on the edge is Spes Bona Forest.

There were lots of this twining parasitic False Dodder (Cassytha ciliolata) which is, astonishingly, part of the Lauraceae family that includes stinkwoods and avocado trees. We saw that someone had been pulling it out of the fynbos and piling it in great piles on the path but it is not a weed but an indigenous plant that has just as much a right to live here as the prettier flowers!

A very bright and showy pink form of the Ninepin Heath (Erica mammosa).

There were lots of Common Starheath (Staavia radiata) which belong to the Bruniaceae - one of those families that almost only occur in the Cape fynbos.

We always seem to see this Flea Bush - actually "Vlieebos" or Cape Fellwort (Saltera sarcocolla) - when we are feeling a bit flea-bitten. This flower belongs to the Penaea family that is one of the four families (Penaea, Grubbia, Roridula and Geissoloma) that only occur in the fynbos and nowhere else. A fluffy little Bulbine flavosa.

We made our way back down the shady, craggy path that we had come up - and we all agreed it was nicer than the Mule Track. There were lots of fragrant flowers too - making it altogether too sweet-smelling for us although Dawn still smells rather good after her roll in unmentionable stuff in the Greenbelt yesterday. (Bath for her when we get home! Bad stinky dog!) Dougal didn't want to cross the busy road when we got back to Boyes Drive and instead made the Alpha cross and the Food Lady yell when he tried to slip out of his lead in the middle of the race track that Boyes Drive has turned into.

Route description here. (Although we came back a slightly different way.)