Apprentice hiker

I joined a group hike today, from the top of Ou Kaapse Weg to Muizenberg Cave. This involved hiking over the top of the mountains of the Steenberg range, covering a distance of at least 8km and climbing to a peak of 535m. The walk got off to an inauspicious start for me. I had decided to leave my new camera at home and rely on my trusty cellphone to take pictures to (a) prove I had been there and (b) record every interesting plant, bird or rock I passed on the way. Somehow I slid the screen brightness button to minimum and, in the bright daylight, thought the phone battery had died and so left it in the boot, muttering and mumbling about how annoyed I was with myself.
An icy southerly wind was blowing and I delved into my rucksack for hat and windcheater to supplement puffy down jacket (no-one can say I was unprepared for bad weather), only to find that my little flask of coffee had a minor leak and I now had a damp woolly hat. I pulled it on, resembling a 20s flapper, and we set off along the gravel road towards the Silvermine waterfall. We hadn't gone too far before I realised that I had forgotten to transfer my orthotic inserts from my shoes to my walking boots - tarsal tunnel syndrome means every step without them is piercingly painful - but there was no turning back and I would just bite the bullet. By the end of the walk I could hardly put one foot in front of the other, and as soon as I got home, I ordered an extra set of inserts from the podiatrist. Never again will I make that mistake!
The Cape Floral Kingdom is a beauteous thing to behold, and there were so many spectacular flowers beginning to open after winter. Frequent excursions in the mountains are the only way to fully appreciate and understand what Nature has given us freely for our enjoyment. 9 000 species exist in an area of 90 000 square kilometres, two-thirds of which are found nowhere else in the world. Truly something to be preserved. The fynbos field guide weighs more than 1kg and it's therefore impractical to lug up and down a mountain. Hence my irritation at not being able to photograph everything for later identification. I would have to rely on my photographic memory. This also meant that there are no photos to accompany this blog, and as I consider them vital to every story, will not bore you with more prose tonight. The tale continues...