Cape Town — Having had our plans of a sea kayak trip laid waste by some late south-easterly gales last weekend, we instead headed for a walk in the northern section of Silvermine reserve.

It is one of our favourite places, and I well remember the first signs of life after the fires of 2000, with fire lilies emerging bright red and phoenix-like from the ashes. Today the recovery has been wondrous and a walk in the reserve always provides some sort of floral display on any day of the year.

Given the heat we should perhaps have opted for the shade of the river walk, but feeling uncommonly energetic and in search of a little cooling breeze, we headed up the jeep track for a walk around the Noordhoek Peak circuit.

This trail is not hard, although it does have some quite steep sections towards the top. On the lower slopes most of the plants had already flowered but the hillside was simply awash with varied palette of greens, remarkably lush-looking in what at first glance would appear to be an arid and desolate landscape.

We turned off the main track some way up the first incline on to the amphitheatre ridge path, more demanding on one's footwork but offering in compensation more interest and greater opportunity of seeing more of the fauna and flora. Even a short way up the ridge one has superb views of the Strandfontein coastline and the small Silvermine reservoir sparkling at the bottom of the amphitheatre.

The rock formations on the ridge rise like gargoyles near the top, carved by wind and rain and brought to life by an active imagination. Sitting in the shade of one of these outcrops we watched a field mouse collecting grass seeds, all hyperactive concentration as it stripped the stalks with machine-like efficiency until an ill-advised movement caused it to turn tail and disappear.

As we walked along the path we regularly came upon black lizards which would dart into the protective shelter of the rocks as we approached. Turning over the top of Crassula Edge we joined up once again with the jeep track heading on upwards to Noordhoek Peak itself. Nearing the top some 754m above sea level, we were met by a carpet of colour: bright pink ericas coated the mountain top in a spectacular carpet, having left their flowering a little later than their cousins farther down in the valley.

From here on the walk was ablaze with colour, the waters of False Bay still tinged and sullied by the red tide and the Atlantic along Noordhoek and Hout Bay an impossibly bright turquoise blue.

The clear bright waters were at once beckoning one to clamber down the mountain for a swim and yet warning that should you do so you are likely to find the temperature anaesthetically cold.

The views from Noordhoek Peak are quite breathtaking, with the naval vessels of Simon's Town and the fishing and tourist boats of Hout Bay all clearly in view from the same vantage point.

As we sat a rock kestrel kited along the updraft of the ridge, no doubt in search of one of those field mice busy stocking their larders.

As we walked back down to the car park we detoured along the far ridge above the climbing crags, looking out over the Cape Flats and being fortunate to catch a pair of black eagles soaring effortlessly on the thermals and updrafts. We watched for a while but never saw them so much as flap a wing, poetry in motion, an exercise in flight efficiency.

On the last leg of our journey we passed numerous flowering Sugar Bush Proteas and a stand of impossibly large King Proteas. In a landscape where much of the plant life is small and hardy, a result of the harsh conditions, these flowers seem ludicrously extravagant, as though God simply became bored with all the small stuff and decided to splash out with his palette in a fit of artistic abandon.

With the image of these flowers still clear in our minds we headed home, the sun settling lower in a still clear blue sky, the gargoyles on the ridge now transformed back to simple silhouettes of rock and less menacing from a distance.