The Cactus Trip Diaries

The words of this song by the Carpenters went through my mind as we set off in the morning, each of us having agreed that we would spend the day on a wild goose chase for a needle in a haystack. But we could imagine what we would have felt like if we had lost something quite valuable and had missed on the opportunity to go and look for it. We’re just softies, I guess.

Fortunately my camera had recorded the GPS data for each of our stops so we had no problem retrieving our tyre marks. Yesterday had been cool and breezy, today the windchill factor was stronger and occasional drizzle ensured that we did not hang around outside of the car too long. As a result there were fewer images taken and little that was new or different from yesterday to show you.

S2700 – various

While a single image can give a good view of a single plant or a wide scenery shot of the environment, I have not included too many shot here to show how many plants are found growing together, as if in a botanical garden. Here a Cotyledon sp, Anacampseros filamentosa and a Cheiridopsis sp are growing in close proximity of each other. This image was taken at yesterday’s S2693.

Although all four of us made a serious attempt at retracing footsteps and looked in and underneath the low shrubs, there was no sign of Eunice’s iPhone.

S2702 – rain

The view from the car as two of my fellow travellers are making their way back through the rain. Still no joy in our search. We joked that somewhere a baboon was showing it off to his mates, proud that he had discovered how to switch it on but cursing the fact that there was no charger left with his new-found toy. Eunice was beginning to see that today’s search might have a disappointing ending.

S2704 – Larryleachia cactiforme

The weather had cleared a bit and the light was now better than it had been yesterday. I like this shot!

S2705 – Lithops marmorata elisea

And also the shot of these Lithops that illustrate that the better plants grow protected from strong sun and grazing animals and their trampling feet, under the low shrubs.

We got back to our hotel earlier than yesterday, so an opportunity to catch up with sorting out images and a chat with Angie at the appropriately called Titbits Restaurant.

Today marks the halfway point of our trip, in terms of days on the ground. Browsing back through my images I was struck how much we had seen already and very pleased with the diversity of plants that we had covered. I have seen many presentations of trips in this area and it seemed that there was a bias in the places and images taken towards the plant Families that were of greatest interest to the persons on that trip. And why not? We seemed to have covered a bit of everything so that I can look forward to preparing a good broad view of what we saw for the 2013 round of What I Saw Last Winter talks in the UK.

We retired to our favourite Restaurant for yet another steak (at least for me – I’ll check if I’m growing horns once I get home) which tonight was on Eunice as a thank you for us spending the day looking for her iPhone.