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.

New paths to explore

Today we were not planning to walk as there was a LATE NIGHT and a SUNDAY LUNCH but they were up early and it was a gorgeous morning so joy-of-joys we were bundled into the back of the Land Rover and off we trundled to Silvermine.

Laddie was happy,

Harvey was happy - even though he is always in a state of extreme happiness -

I was happy, the Alph was happy, although he wouldn't let me out of his sight because "you-can't-be-trusted",

and the Food Lady was happy because there were so many lovely flowers - from tiny little pink Indigofera glomerata flowers

to large Painted Ladies (Gladiolus debilis). Spring is definitely here. In fact, it was so hot I thought maybe it was already summer. (Us Scots don't like summer over much. We prefer the thought of snow and cold, bracing walking weather.)

Harvey was overheating, and we were happy to find a natural pool for a dip and a sip.

A rather puzzling plant - but thanks to iSpot, the Food Lady now knows it is Morella kraussiana.  

Clutia alaternoides just chocablock with doll's house-sized flowers.

We met lots of very happy people coming up - some with flowers in their hats and bandanas on their dogs, all exclaiming on the lovely warm weather.

The Food Lady decided we had time to try a new path, so we explored a rather nice new path that led to the very tippy-top of Wolfkop Peak.

Here is the Alph's photo of her on the top - holding on to Harvey as there is a sheer drop all the way down and the Food Lady is rather nervous of dogs abilities to stay alive in such situations! 

The whole of Silvermine at our feet: you can just see the carpark and part of Ou Kaapse Weg below.

We had tea in a shady little gap in the rocks - and are looking forward to bringing the rest of the walking group up here soon. It is quite a steep descent from here to the carpark, so they reluctantly decided not to try it today and went back the way we had come. Thank heavens! (I am not really a mountaineering dog.)

We took a sort-of short cut back to the normal Fat Lady path, past these Senecio daisies filled with monkey beetles,

ignoring all the happy people on the way down in our desperation to reach the cool water at the bottom of the path.

Harvey was sorry we didn't do the long way down as he is a real mountain goat.

There are lovely spring flowers like these babianas coming up all around the dog-poo fertilised car park, 

Lad and Harvey contemplated starting all over again with these two friendly Huskies, but I hardly gave them a backward glance,

and was very happy to be back in the Land Rover. Laddie is wondering if this was a special spot for Land Rovers only. Then it was home to lunch with Graham and Daleen and lovely sleeps in the shade.

Pretty in pink

Here we are again, climbing up the steepest path the Food Lady could find - Thea and Tessa, Pauline, me, Lad, the Food Lady and the Alph. Now that the Food Lady's foot is better ... watch out - we are all going to get fit again.

But luckily for me, she has to keep stopping to take photos. Here is the start of Orchid Season for the Food Lady - a dainty pink Moederkappie or Granny's Bonnet (Disperis capensis).

Tessa bounding up and down and up and down,

while I found every little water hole to cool off as it is definitely getting warmer.

Thea and Tessa knew EVERYONE we bumped into on the mountain!

We tried to spot Pauline's house in the distance when we reached the top but concluded it was just out of view.

Suffering from exhaustion, the Food Lady called for an early tea - which suited me as I could smell the dog biltong bits,

and Thea's delicious sandwiches.

The Alph tried to send messages,

while I kept watch for baboons and porcupines, caracals and other dogs that might want to muscle in our feast, 

and Tessa and the Lad went exploring.

There were quite a lot of flowers for the Food Lady - a pink flushed Yellow Rice Heath (Erica lutea),

some pink, honey-scented Erica glabella plants in full flower,

and these interesting, pinky white Common Starheath (Staavia radiata) flowers that are from the Bruniaceae family. They are composite flowers, like daisies. 

With battleships far below,

we reached Muizenberg Peak which had already been conquered by lots of other peeps.

So we turned down, past these endemic and rare Sticky Green Heath (Erica urna-viridis) flowers

and these big bright pink Cape Fellwort (Saltera sarcocolla) flowers which also belong to an interesting fynbos family - the Penaeaceae.

Some more of Thea and Tessa's friends passed us.

The Food Lady was super excited to find some teeny tiny, sweet-scented pink orchids called Disa obliqua subsp. obliqua.

And there were more pink flowers too - the pinky-blue, early flowering bulb, Babiana villosula,

and some pretty pink and white Needle-leaf Sunflax (Heliophila scoparia var. scoparia) - but eventually she had to stop and run to catch us all up.

Tessa and Lad and me were having a welcome dip in the river at the bottom of the path.

Then it was a short walk back to the Land Rover and home. Incidentally, the yellow flowers here have the fabulous common name of Fivetooth Baboon Cabbage (Othonna quinquedentata).