The Cactus Trip Diaries

We found lodgings at the comfortable Protea Hotel, that David recognised from his previous trip. First priority of the day was for Cliff and I to get the tyre fixed. Due to the non-standard size of the tyre, it had to be ordered but would be there, first thing tomorrow morning. Next on to the Budget Rent-a-car offices. This appeared to be limited to a nice lady in a small office with just a few car waiting for customers. Unfortunately there was nothing that she could do during the period that we were in town. She explained that their normal practice for servicing cars is a deal with the local (in our case) Nissan dealer, with the bill being covered by Budget. We looked at our plans and at the towns where such a service could be arranged and settled on Oudtshoorn in about a weeks time. We explained that by then we would be several 1,000 km over the 60,000km service point, but she accepted that this was beyond our control. She called the Nissan dealer in Oudtshoorn and made the arrangements – another weight of our mind.

Back at the hotel we made quick plans of what to do on this cold and rainy day. Rather than exploring in the rain we settled on a drive to the famous Sheilam’s Nursery at Robertsons and a visit to the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden in Worcester. At least we could find shelter there if the rain should suddenly come down hard and driving on good tarmac to get there was not too bad with our temporary tyre.

I’ll leave images for plants in habitat for days to come.