Wednesday 27 September 2017 – One month to go!
Yes, just one month and Angie and I will briefly visit London Heathrow Airport to fly to Madrid, where we change for our flight to Santiago de Chile. During a three week period we plan to re-visit our favourite spots from the last sixteen years and meet up with old friends:- cacti, people and hotels and restaurants, between Pichidangui, some 240 km from Santiago Airport and up to Tocopilla.
The internet has been awash with stories and images of one of the best flowering deserts for years – they seem to become more frequent in recent years! Coincidence or a by-product of global warming? Let’s hope that the flowering continues on for another month or two!
Fingers crossed that unlike the rain that caused the desert to be in flower in 2015, there is not as much damage as there was on that occasion. The Chilean coastal hills have little, often no vegetation or soil to support it. So any water that falls here immediately finds the fastest way down, carrying any dust and gravel down with it as a thick sludge. In 2015 there were reports of Copiapoa megarhiza floating down the Rio Copiapoa. In Chanaral we saw the damage done to houses where the mud filled the ground floor up to their ceilings.
I have ordered the new Nikon D850 DSLR camera, so, at least equipment wise, I should come back with the best images ever. Its release was oversubscribed, so although I am next on the local camera’s shop waiting list, the next box that they receive is mine. Hopefully with some time to spare to get used to its new features.
As usual, I’ll aim to send daily blogs to keep the folks back home informed, up to date and entertained.
The Cactus Trip Diaries 