Mountain crab

I hope you've all managed to squeeze some relaxing and enjoyable time in between the craziness and festivities of the last few days! I for one decided to go for an early morning surf last Wednesday (my birthday) before switching on my PC... and left it off till now! What bliss! I am rather sad that my work tool is also a play tool, because sometimes I am just totally overwhelmed by computerness, but hey, there's so much good in these things too!

I went for an impromptu walk through Newlands Forest yesterday, which never fails to delight. It always feels a bit like the garden in Through the Looking Glass to me - you need to head in the opposite direction to where you want to go and the paths will shake themselves out and deposit you... well... somewhere interesting!

Left: A Table Mountain river crab (Potamonautes perlatus) - the largest invertebrate in the Cape Peninsula's streams, they are an important decomposer of dead plant and animal matter. By filling its gill chambers with water, the river crab can move considerable distances overland in search of better feeding grounds. From Table Mounatin, A Natural History by Anton Pauw and Steven Johnson a book worth having in your library! (Google only returned various methods of eating crabs!)
Right: Crab's eye view of the contour path below Hiddingh Buttress.

PS. Thanks so much to everyone who purchased calendars, you've helped to donate R2000 to Rhino Reality - check them out at  rhinoreality.org.