Mad dogs and an Englishman

Today we (The Alph, FL, Dougal and me) set out in the rain with Paul and Pauline,
and Alice and Maddie, along the track to check on the Marsh Pagodas. The more sensible of the walkers stayed in bed again.
The facilities have been upgraded here we were pleased to see.
A little Babiana - possibly the Winter Babiana (B. villosula) - was braving the rain,
and the rare March Pagodas (Mimetes hirtus) were starting to flower in the boggy area they seem to love.
Come on, stop looking at the flowers and hurry up. There are lots of rodents to flush out of the bushes.
The King Protea, always beautiful!
Dougal trying to persuade me into the soggy fynbos to hunt for mice. No thanks! Not today. Its just too wet.
The only other person we encountered in the rain was an Englishman (complete with St George Cross beanie) and three bedraggled mad dogs. I tried hard to make friends with them.
The rushy river reminded the Food Lady of the poem about fairies* that goes
"They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake"
And here is one of the blighters in a Bicolour Currant-rhus (Searsia tomentosa). Needless to say, I was too wet to think of chasing fairies today and very pleased to get into the car and go home to a nice warm fire.
And in case anyone is interested, Searsia belong to the mango family, Anacardiaceae, along with the Marula, African Wild Plum (Harpephyllum caffrum), Cape Rockwood (Heeria) and the BAD invasive Brazilian Pepper and the Pepper Tree. They are all dioecious too - i.e. male and female trees are seperate.

The Fairies by William Allingham

Gargoyles and guacamole

An early start up the Steenberg with the sun just coming out over the Cape Flats. Pauline was back today which was exciting. Her foot is much better. Paul and Alice and Maddie also came. What utter bliss life is for a little black scottie! Some yellow bulbs were flowering - the Apricot Tulp (Moraea ochroleuca) - as we started walking up the hill - a harbinger of spring even if it was a delightfully (for a scottie) stinky harbinger. Moraea ochroleuca is sapromyiophilous (pollinated by carrion flies) which explains it stinkyness.
It was quite chilly but the sun was trying to come out.
We had tea in a rather inhospitable spot for a scot who doesn't really enjoy bundu-bashing through the fynbos which is why I am not in the photo. But Dougal would risk anything for a bit of Karen's Kitchen rusk. In the photo are Alice, Maddie behind the rock, the Alph, Paul, Dougal and Pauline.
Jeeez what the hell is that? Creeps me out.
Dougal trying to look terrifying and gargoylish to scare me. A fine one to talk, oh he who is freaked out by a bit of harmless thunder!
Yikes. What are those eerie looking dogs? Real or imaginary? The guardian hounds of the Muizenberg trig beacon?
A quick peek over the edge looking down on Muizenberg beach. More snary rock monsters looking over too.
Then Alice and Maddie and the Alph took off down the mountain as if the hounds of hell were after them, and we had to try and keep up.
No sign of any hounds or gargoyles. But the Alph didn't hear me and continued hurtling down.
It was quite warm by now as we struggled down the stony footpath.
And this, we discovered, was the reason for the headlong rush down the mountainside - a lunch date in the vineyards with Philip, Simon and Omie-Domes. Phil arrived just as we got back. It was lovely to see him even though we weren't invited to the lunch at Noble Hill Wine Estate.
Spicy prawn wraps and guacamole for the Food Lady.
The wine-tasting room on the estate.
The next morning we went for a walk on Fish Hoek beach with Phil and Omie-Domes and all the spaniels And some other dogs seemed to tag along too.

Good boy

Seen on the le Roux's fridge. Well done Claude! (Photo of Claude courtesy of Alice, my favourite human in all the world.)

A midwinter meander

Today we discovered a wonderful new walk. The Food Lady has been part of the way before with the Friends of Silvermine and we have been to Kleinplaas Dam lots of times, but most of it was new territory. We met Alice and Maddie (everyone else was snug in their beds!) at the ghost town parking spot just before the Brooklands water plant at the end of the Pineview/Brooklands road off Red Hill Drive, and set off along the path to Kleinplaas Dam.
The veld was burned quite recently and there were lots and lots of interesting plants popping up in the sandy veld including these little Winter Babianas (Babiana villosula),
and these odd little Snake Lilies (Ornithoglossum viride),
and the tiny little Winter Spike-lily (Wurmbea hiemalis) - which is endemic to the Cape Peninsula.
We quickly got to the dam and discovered that the water had reached the measuring stick - last time it was high and dry. It is still quite an optimistic measuring stick though!
Maddie found the waves on the dam a bit snary.
and I became snared in a fairy circle. Round and round ...
It was still too early for tea, so we set off along the dam wall in a northerly direction. We came across some luminous flowers called Vlamme (Gladiolus bonaespei),
and when the path forked, we took the right fork as we were enjoying the smell (and taste) of fresh horse dung littered around. The left fork is the main Hoerikwaggo Trail and no horses are allowed on it.
These Golden Sunshine Conebushes (Leucadendron laureolum) were glowing yellow, but the sky was getting darker and darker and eventually it started to rain.
We trudged along the sandy path, getting a bit worried that we were now heading off in a westerly direction when we needed to turn round and head back in a south-easterly one. This pretty pink, strongly aniseed-scented buchu bush (Agathosma lanceolata) was the same colour as Alice's rain jacket. (And in case you are wondering how a colour-blind dog can tell this, the Food Lady told me!)
Luckily the path then swung round and before we knew it we had reached the Lewis Gay Dam and the tarred road.
Apparently Lewis Gay was a mayor of Simon's Town and an MP. The dam was built in the 1950s.
A short wet trudge up the road from the Water Purification Plant and the Dam,
and we were back at the car and home in time for tea: soggy but happy!

It's chilly out there

Charlie! You wouldn't!

Ghostly trails and sweet potato festivals

We are off to Daisy and Dougal is all ready and waiting in the land rover.
So am I. Hoity toity on my new blanket.
As we drove through Napier en route to Agulhas, we noticed lots of scarecrows hanging about, and when we stopped at our usual place for lunch (we were a bit too late for their breakfast!) there was a stary snary pig outside. We asked them why there were all these funny things around and were told ... it was the Patatfees!
But are these patat chips? No indeed they are not. They are potato chips. Patats are actually sweet potatoes. Its all rather difficult for a scotty brain to grasp, but the chicken pie was delicious even if we only got the tiniest of tiny tidbits.
At Daisy we went for an afternoon stroll to Rasperpunt to investigate the fieldmice which kept us busy for ages,
before early supper and early bed.
The next morning we drove to Agulhas, past the lighthouse which is apparently going to have a re-vamp very soon.
The Alph went into our favourite shop to buy gas for the cooker and nearly fell over our friend the Border Collie. (Border Collies always have their mind on higher things like herding sheep.) We found these poor bokke all scommled around in a red machine outside the shop, which reminded the humans that there was an important rugby match later on. Luckily they could check the score on their cellphones. (We won!).
We then parked the land rover at the entrance to Agulhas and, guidebook in hand, we set out on the Spookdraai Staproete.
The trail starts in the main road and goes past some ghostly white horses,
with ghost stone markers all along the way for humans to follow and dogs to send wee mail from.
It was Father's Day - but we wondered about the fathers in Agulhas. I have seen some lurching around after a night in the pub, but isn't it a bit early for lurching?
These buildings were apparently built during World War 2 as a secret radar base which was manned and controlled by a British Women's Unit. (The use of "manned" here is quite PC as its base is the Latin word for hand - manu.) The existing road that leads up the Sandberg to the TV-signal enhancer mast originally led to the radar apparatus. Mount Pleasant is now holiday houses.
In the grass along the road were all sorts of interesting flowers like these lachenalias - probably Lachenalia bulbifera,
and lots of these strange little Hedgehog Lilies (Massonia pustulata).
The path suddenly left the streets of Agulhas and took off up the hill into the limestone fynbos.
The Alph looking over Cape Agulhas from an old water tank. You can just see the lighthouse in the far distance.
Some wag painted around this natural foot shape in the limestone. There are lots of little holes in the limestone up here, most of them filled with miniature plants.
Another ghostly marker and a snary limestone cave. We heard a rumour that caracals are often seen in these caves.
The rare Limestone Pagoda (Mimetes saxatilis) which is endemic to limestone ridges from Pearly Beach to Struisbaai and is listed on the Red List of South African plants as Endangered.
The Limestone Conebush (Leucadendron meridianum) looking over Agulhas.
Yet another plant endemic to these limestone ridges is the Limestone Blombos (Metalasia calcicola).
This pretty little flower has the most unfortunate name of Fineleaf Skunkbush (Chaenostoma revolutum). I know how it feels as I am often called a Skunkdog.
The Food Lady wants me to include just two more limestone endemics before you all fall fast asleep, Euchaetis meridionalis (a type of buchu) that only occurs on limestone in the eastern part of the southern Overberg,

and the Limestone Sugarbush (Protea obtusifolia).
These strange puff balls in the middle of the path were all puffed out.
Looking towards Struisbaai. The path then meandered down to the start.
All in all this is a pretty fantastic walk through the limestone fynbos of the southern tip of Africa. We were all ready to lurch into a traditional Agulhas Sunday lurch afterwards.