apache permissions issue - namei output

namei.txt

# this link works perfectly
$ namei -m public_html/gallery/Pictures 
f: public_html/gallery/Pictures
 drwxr-xr-x public_html
 drwxr-xr-x gallery
 lrwxrwxrwx Pictures -> ../../Pictures
   drwxr-xr-x ..
   drwxr-xr-x ..
   lrwxrwxrwx Pictures -> aleisa/Pictures
     drwxr-xr-x aleisa
     drwxr-xr-x Pictures


# this one causes apache to say Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /home/triffid/public_html/gallery/old-pictures, referer: http://jinsuul/~triffid/cgi-bin/gallery/old-pictures
$ namei -m public_html/gallery/old-pictures 
f: public_html/gallery/old-pictures
 drwxr-xr-x public_html
 drwxr-xr-x gallery
 lrwxrwxrwx old-pictures -> ../../Storage/Pictures
   drwxr-xr-x ..
   drwxr-xr-x ..
   drwxrwxr-x Storage
   drwxrwxr-x Pictures

$ mount
# irrelevant lines removed
aleisa:/home/triffid on /home/triffid/aleisa type fuse.sshfs (rw,noatime,allow_other)
aleisa:/mnt/storage on /home/triffid/Storage type fuse.sshfs (rw,noatime,allow_other)


# strace -s 1024 -f -o apache2.strace /etc/init.d/apache2 start
# edited for brevity
# this is the NON-WORKING symlink
3795  stat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/old-pictures/000_0001.JPG", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0775, st_size=278484, ...}) = 0
3795  open("/home/triffid/.htaccess", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
3795  open("/home/triffid/public_html/.htaccess", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
3795  lstat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
3795  open("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/.htaccess", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
3795  lstat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/old-pictures", {st_mode=S_IFLNK|0777, st_size=22, ...}) = 0
3795  stat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/old-pictures", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0775, st_size=565248, ...}) = 0
3795  gettimeofday({1351990275, 338808}, NULL) = 0
3795  write(2, "[Sun Nov 04 11:51:15 2012] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /home/triffid/public_html/gallery/old-pictures, referer: http://jinsuul/~triffid/cgi-bin/gallery/old-pictures\n", 221) = 221

# this is the WORKING symlink
3841  stat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/Pictures/100_1309.JPG", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=280624, ...}) = 0
3841  open("/home/triffid/.htaccess", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
3841  open("/home/triffid/public_html/.htaccess", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
3841  lstat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
3841  open("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/.htaccess", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
3841  lstat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/Pictures", {st_mode=S_IFLNK|0777, st_size=14, ...}) = 0
3841  stat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/Pictures", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=69632, ...}) = 0
3841  open("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/Pictures/.htaccess", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
3841  lstat64("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/Pictures/100_1309.JPG", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=280624, ...}) = 0
3841  open("/home/triffid/public_html/gallery/Pictures/100_1309.JPG", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = 19