Bertie's Balcony on a warm day

Another windless, sunny, early spring day dawned, reminding us why we live here. When the wind doesn't blow, Cape Town is the place to be! Today's hike was in Silvermine Nature Reserve, from the no-pay gate along the jeep track, branching off into the hills and valleys of the Steenberg plateau - our destination, Bertie's Balcony. We have yet to establish who Bertie was, but understand he farmed in the valley long ago, and these mountains must surely have been a pristine paradise in his day. They are still quite pristine, but there are always signs of human activity that degrade the scenic beauty - for me, the carelessly discarded cigarette butts (really?) lying on the path make it clear that it is indeed a filthy habit. Why not take it home with you? Fortunately there was no other litter; perhaps it is not such a well-worn path due to it being quite a climb and taking around 4 hours to do the round trip.
The slopes were a riot of yellow daisy bushes, some quite blindingly bright, and the magnificent mimetes bushes were almost forest-like in their abundance. They appear to have survived the wildfires of the last 20 years, or else are particularly fast growing, and they are definitely my favourite of all the fynbos species. Brilliant blue babianas dotted the sandy areas, and higher up we found many of the very special Erica urna-viridis, which is endemic to the Steenberg plateau. They were flowering out of season, as they are recorded as flowering from December to July - perhaps even Nature is getting confused by the odd weather we are experiencing world-wide. The exciting thing about walking in our mountains is that every time you go you will see something different in our vast floral kingdom.
We saw quite a few birds - neddicky, Cape grassbirds, orange-breasted sunbirds, a rock kestrel and the ever-present crows in a flock harassing a small bird of prey.
The company was excellent, with plenty of cheerful banter despite having to walk in single file, but numerous rest stops to swig some water, enjoy the views, change places in the crocodile or shed a layer of clothing in the rising heat of the day allowed us all to get tremendous enjoyment from the outing. We did give some thought to the old song, Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out in the Midday Sun, but as we made our way up the relentless gradient of the jeep track on our way back to the cars, we passed a number of young people only setting out at midday, so it seems as though there were some Mad Dogs out there after all!