Sunday, 21 October 2012 – Springbok to Pofadder
There had to be a reason why we had included Pofadder in our itinerary, but if there was, I forgot why. In the UK, Timbuktu is used to describe a place that is so remote and bland that you would not want to visit unless you had to. I understand that in the US, Kalamazoo has the same reputation. In South Africa, this honour goes to Pofadder and after our visit there, I can understand why.
We had only explored a modest distance east of Springbok, at Smorgenskadu farm, a few days ago and very much liked what we had seen. Yesterday we had been north of Springbok and got wet. The weather at Pofadder was said to be much warmer and drier; perhaps that’s why we went, although it does not explain why it was on the menu in the first place.
We had a fair distance to cover, but fortunately on good tarmac, with the only holdup caused by crews putting another layer on top of what seemed to be a pretty sound surface. S2706 was 3.6 km north-east of Aggeneys Airport. It seemed as though we were back in het Sperrgebiet, with signage everywhere discouraging us to go off the main road. The weather had certainly improved and now the heat was discouraging us from staying out of the air-conditioned car for too long.
S2706 – Lapidaria margaretae
The new kid on the block here was Lapidaria margaretae, the only taxon in a monotypic genus that used to be included in Argyroderma. Such nice plants deserve two images, don’t you think? But most plants that were here were old friends, even if they have not yet been introduced to me by name.
S2706 – Lapidaria margaretae
At 2707, a bit farther along, things looked really dry. Lapidaria margaretae was still here, but if my camera can be believed, nothing else, just a large expanse of sand and quartz.
Following directions from friends back in the UK and asking directions from the odd Meerkat that we saw, we reached our goal: (ah, so there was a reason for coming here!) a hillside with the densest population that we had seen of:
S2708 – Pachypodium namaquanum
We stayed at the Pofadder Hotel. If you are familiar with the UK TV sitcom series Fawlty Towers, you’ll agree that the following scene could have come straight out of the series:
We had an OK dinner and asked to see the menu to look over the deserts. After a long wait, four deserts were served. Not sure what they were, but we explained that we had asked for the menu, so that we could make our selection. Another long wait – it was 10:15 by now. The menu arrived and we called the waitron (Afrikaanse term for waitress) over to take our order. She came back 10 minutes later to explain that the kitchen closed at 10, so no sweets for us. Ah well, there was always the bar!
We had thought to stay two nights but after a quick consultation decided to go back to Springbok tomorrow for another steak at the Tauren Steak House!
The Cactus Trip Diaries 