The Cactus Trip Diaries

Thursday 6 March 2014 – Bellflower to LAX

Wednesday, 5 March 2014 – around California

California is larger than you might think.

After a leisurely breakfast, we made a 2 hr 30 drive to El Cajon, east of San Diego, to visit  Juergen Menzel a.k.a. Cactus Jordi on the internet. Google images for Cactis Jordi will give you a marvelous selection of images of beautiful cultivated plants, mostly raised from seed. Out in the garden a large Welwitschia mirabilis had taken 12 years from sowing to grow to this size, providing some indication of similar conditions between California and its native homeland in Namibia

There were also old friends, plants seen on previous visits that were looking good! The two plants labelled Eulychnia castanea spiralis that had flowered since I had last seen it (article in the pipeline) seemed to revert back towards ‘normal’ but still with a long way to go. Very intriguing plants. It was great to see that Spring had arrived, at least in southern California with many cacti and succulents providing a great display of flowers.

All too soon it was time to go – we had to be at the Gates C&S Society at the San Bernardino County Museum at Redlands, near Riverside. Woody Minnich was giving an alternative presentation on his trip to Madagascar, this time pt2, featuring some marvelous shots of the baobab trees. Woody had invited to join him and Newsletter Editor Buck Hemmenway, his wife Yvonne and her mother and aunt for a pre-meeting bite to eat.

C&S Societies are as much about socialising and discovering what members grow and the conditions that challenge them. I lost count of how many members were there but I guess 40-50. Eunice and I were asked to judge the table show and a magnificent bunch were again on display. This time a number of Bushman’s Candles were my favourites. Fortunately the plants in the two classes were owned by the same people, so it did not matter greatly which came first and which came second, although for all we knew, as some of the plants were entered by a couple, there might be extreme competition between the two of them.

We then enjoyed ‘snacks’ – we could have missed the pre-talk meal and not gone hungry! All these activities had taken their time and my mind was turning to all the things still to be done before my flight to Mexico City the next day. Rather than sneak out during the middle of woody’s talk, we said our goodbyes to Woody and to Buck and Yvonne – Good luck in South Africa!!

Tuesday, 4 March 2014 – trip to Catalina Island, CA

Yes, another trip to an island named in honour of Saint Catalina, this time the Pacific island that is part of Los Angeles Co., rather than the island in the Gulf of Cortez south of Loreto, in Baja California Sur.

In both cases the attraction was to see an endemic succulent – the massive Ferocactus digueti in Baja and Dudleya virens ssp hassei here. A visit to the Botanic Gardens, originally created by Mr Wrigley – he of discovering chewing gum fame, thus helping to create the stereotype image of an American of a gum chewing individual – of course also gun slinging and smoking Marlboro cigarettes or Cuban cigars.

The recent weather system seems to have settled back to fairy land blue skies and sunshine, leaving people to mop up their homes and roads. Palm trees leave a mess after strong winds and heavy rain!

Where as Isla Santa Catalina was uninhabited and our journey to the island was made on a panga, disembarking on a pebble beach, we arrived at Avalon on Catalina Island by catamaran – similar to the Pompey to Isle of Wight foot passenger ferry, except that this was a 75 minute journey.

As usual, just because you are at the town from where the plants are reported, that does not mean that they grow down the middle of Main Street, so where do we start looking? There were places that hired out golf carts that are the main form of transport on the island, lined up along the steep rockwall on the road towards the shops and restaurants. We went for the shade of the rockwall side and soon spotted the Dudleyas growing there, but with a lot of debris between us and the plants. By selecting the best viws, we managed to get some good shots.

We found Tourist information who suggested a walk up to the Botanic Garden, but with the mercury pushing 30C + the trolley service, without windows as it’s aircondition system, was a more attractive option. Dudleya hassei was in the ‘Catalina Island endemics’ section of the garden. Plants looked a lot cleaner and their ID was confirmed by clear labels – providing perfect images to crop to blend in with true habitat pictures in future presentations. We climbed to the top of Wrigley’s monument, photographed a Catalina Island endemic fox scavenging around a waste bin  and caught the trolley back to town where we succumbed to souvenirs and margaritas, before strolling back to the pier to catch the Cataline Flyer. The rockwall where earlier we had photographed Dudleya in the shade was now bathed in sunlight offering a new and better selection of shots.

The boat trip back provided more images as the sun set with the island behind the horizon.

We had overdosed on fresh air so enjoyed a good night’s sleep after emptying a bottle of Malbec.

Another great day!

Sunday, 2 March 2014 – visit to Long Beach C&S Society

It was still raining when I got up, but we found a dry spell to drive out for breakfast and another to drive to the new meeting place for the Long Beach Cactus & Succulent Society where our friend Woody Minnich was today’s speaker with one of his presentations on a trip to Madagascar. What better way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon!

As you browse through The Cactus Trip Diaries you’ll read how we travelled together in 2005 on Guillermo Rivera’s cactus tour of NW Argentina and again in 2009 on Marlon Machado’s tour of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

Long Beach was the first US C&S Society where I have gave a presentation in February 2008. Wow, doesn’t time fly! So in addition, to a great talk there was also an opportunity to renew friendships with folks that I first met in 2008 – too many to mention, with the exception with Vern Yandell, who in 2008 greeted me with a few words of Dutch, learned as his wife was originally from the Netherlands.

Left to right: Woody. Karen Ohlinder and PK

Saturday, 1 March 2014 – Palm Springs to Bellflower

Time flies, especially when you’re enjoying yourself and your blog is developing a backlog of almost a week! That raises the question of how to catch up: do the oldest outstanding page or write up what is happening today.

As you will know from yesterday’s report, the longest drought in Californian history with rainfall of 3″ in 24 hours, i.e. a pleasant growing rain for a UK Spring afternoon! But how would you know? I haven’t written yesterday’s report yet!

I was woken up by Angie with a nice cup of coffee from the Palm Spring’s downtown Motel 6 reception. Today was the day of her flight home and late last night she had emailed her son, Peter, with a reminder that he was due to pick her up from London Heathrow Airport on Sunday around noon. Sadly his reply was that although he had not forgotten, he would & could not be there. On his way home on Friday night his car ran into a badger (Meles meles).  Weighing in at up to 18 kg (40 lb), these normally shy animals can make a real mess of the front of the car, especially the radiator, when you meet up with them at 70 m.p.h. He managed to limp home with a leaking radiator – he did not have too far to go, but enquiring after the badger’s health was not on his list of priorities.

Worried about his mum standing at Heathrow Airport with the maximum weight allowance of dirty washing, he had booked her a seat on the National Express coach that would take her through the village of Amesbury. If it was going to stop, it would do so in the centre of town, having passed almost past the end of our road. She had to chose – spend her last UK cash to bribe the driver to stop as close to home as the route would take them or get out at what used to be Amesbury bus station, until all local bus stations were sold off, and take a taxi for the last part of the journey.

There were a few more heavy showers as we drove toward LAX, but SatNav suggested that we’d still be early, so we spent 30 minutes stocking upon new jeans at the Desert Hills shopping outlets, always an enjoyable experience with some real bargains available. After the first shop, the heavens opened up again and we decided to ‘swim’ back to the car.

After we dropped Angie off at LAX, I tried to follow Eunice home on a number of Highways and Freeways and whatever else these rivers of steel are called, during showers where the rain came down so thick, matched by the spray of cars and trucks, that drivers were forced to slow down to almost walking pace.

At least we have great wifi here and a fast broad band, so I can attempt to start operation Blog Catch up

Wednesday, 26 February 2014 – El Centro to Anaheim

Today’s stretch was very familiar as it took us through the Anza Borrego Desert Park. I don’t propose to cover all the cacti that we saw – just turn to the Diary reports for 21 February, 1 March 20 March and 26 March 2008, 20 March 2010, 25 and 27 March 2011 for the plants we saw then.

The only exception is that Eunice took us to see Dudleya pulverulenta ssp arizonica. I recognised the spot where I had been in March 2008 because Eunice had shouted STOP, but Cliff, Ian and I had had enough of ‘lettuces’ after three weeks in Baja.

Angie and I had arranged to meet Eunice at the fuel station at the Ocotillo exit on the I-10 and the S2. In the past we had been given a hard time by the members of the US Border Patrol when they came across a UK resident with a Dutch Passport and a British National with a German accent, but today there was no one on duty.

We stopped at some specific Ferocactus cylindraceus plants from previous visits – multi headed plants with heads going cristate etc. When Eunice wanted to show us a plant that she and Alain Buffel had found during their 2012 visit she got a shock: the plant that Alain had photographed and used as his 2012 Christmas card, was no more. It seems that the centre of the multi headed stem had rotten and had broken up into bits, some still alive.

Very few cacti were in flower but plenty were in bud and with rain forecast, the flowering cacti should be spectacular! But Angie will be be back in England by then.

There were some spectacular skies as we drove towards Anaheim where a Motel 6 had again kept the light on for us.

It was unimaginable to head for LA without a visit to the Julian Pie Shop in Santa Ysabel – yum yum.

Tuesday 25 February 2014 – Ensenada to El Centro

I wanted to show Angie another view of Baja by taking MEX3 from Ensenada south and east, in the direction of San Felipe, but turning north when the road hit the plains along the Sea of Cortex, where we headed north, along MEX5 towards Mexicali and the border with the US.

I’ll look up the entries for our previous visits here, to avoid duplication and allow me to concentrate here on reporting changes. One such change was how much the quality of MEX3 had improved. In 2008 the asphalt had even more potholes than the roads in wiltshire, back home. As a result, the journey was a lot faster – or the opportunities to take pictures are greater.

My favourite set along this route is at La Trinidad where we saw and photographed huge Ferocactus cylindraceus along the northern side of the road on past trips. That site seems to have disappeared, but this encouraged us to look to the other side of the road where equally spectacular. It’s good to look over your shoulder sometime.

At the military inspection point where MEX 3 carries on south and MEX5 heads north to Mexicali, the soldiers now benefit from open sided sheds to perform their inspections. Two soldiers pointed at my feet with some alarm, as if a rattle snake had wound itself around my leg. For a moment I thought that I was going to be arrested for smuggling cacti – a couple of Cylindropuntia pads had attached themselves to my boot and trouser leg. No need to point your guns at my foot – don’t shoot! I became a hero as I nonchalantly brushed the pads away with my key ring.

We reached the border without further incident, but Mexicali at rush hour brings its own challenges and delays. The main cause for the delay was the 90 minutes that we spent in the sin bin cage of the US border patrol. Our crime? Our SatNav had sent us into a Sentri Lane – a preferential fast lane for frequent crossers. I apologised as soon as my crime was pointed out but we were still made the subject of an in debt inspection, with dogs and officers crawling over the car. Nothing illegal found, although for maximum inconvenience was caused by re-arranging the content of bags around the car – there are still bits that I’m sure are in the car, but not where I had put them.

It was only a short distance from the border to El Centro and a friendly Motel 6.

Monday 24 February 2014 – around Ensenada

With Angie’s cold symptoms persisting and my back still sore, it seemed wise to have another rest day. so no rush waking up – breakfast at 9:15, followed by checking emails before a stroll to the huge Mexican flag on the Marecon. Usually we see this as we drive by, snatching the odd picture while dodging the traffic. This time we caught it from various angles, taking images and movie clips, useful introductios to sections dealing with Mexican cacti in future talks.

We had seen tourists being driven around in a horse and carriage and knowing Angie’s love for horses, we took a spin around time. As soon as we set off, Angie burst out in a coughing fit that lasted almost as long as the ride. When she wanted to say hello to the horse, he did not want to know, clearly offended by the noisy passenger.

We then sat by the harbour and were entertained by the pelicans diving into the shallow waters along the Malecon’s wall. I was sure that some would surface from their dive with a bent beak, but it seems that they had done this before. Angie managed to capture one perfect dive on video, out of many more attempts that were deleted as she lost track of where the bird had gone.

Tomorrow we return to the US. It seems that Angie is now a proper Baja convert!

Sunday 23 February 2014 – San Quintin to Ensenada

I clearly remember writing this report yesterday – Angie received the email version that is sent to subscribers to this site, yet it is missing from the archive of postings. No idea why. So here is a copy of Angie’s email version, just to bring my archives back up to date – apologies to those that follow the blog for receiving this duplicate (for you) posting.

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Today was a relatively short drive, so we took it easy getting ready and having breakfast – well, it was Sunday after all!

We were on MEX1 some 5 km after leaving the hotel and SatNav suggested our next turn 183 km time. This stretch of MEX1 can not be accused of being the most scenic as we drove through mostly flat agricultural land and roadside villages where local traffic crossed in and out and dirt tracks crossed the main road at 4 way Alto signs, a sort of Russian roulette  where so far we have won.

Angie’s cold was now at its peak so there was little motivation to stop and search for cacti, even though some Dudleyas were spotted. Although my cold had run its course a few days ago, my back, put out during a sneezing fit, was still very stiff and sore, giving rise to the ‘old boy penguin walk’ when ever I had sat down for more than a few minutes.

I had wanted to show Angie La Bufadora, a natural ‘blow hole’ where the sea forces itself between ever narrowing rocks producing a high water spout at the end. I looked for its location on SatNav, but the nearest location by that name was near San Francisco, CA – the one where Scott McKenzie urged people to wear some flowers in their hair during the 1960s. I had almost given up, when some 15 km south of Ensenada Angie spotted the sign and left hand turn.

I had been here before in 2011 after the Isla Cedros trip with friends from Japan, but on that occasion we had  not ventured farther than the La Bufadora Restaurant. I believe it had been a weekday, so not many people around.

This time, on Sunday, the place was heaving with local tourism. The last km or so up to the blow hole was on foot, passing loads of stalls selling souvenirs, pina coladas and all manner of snacks. We told the persistent salesmen that we might come and shop on the walk back but first wanted to see people get wet.

We were not disappointed and I managed to get some 10 video clips and a number of images that illustrate what it was all about. Sadly, wordpress wants me to upgrade to include video, so a still image will have to do for now.

La Bufadora, south of Ensenada, Baja California.

Saturday 22 February 2014 – around San Quintin

Today we visited one of my favourite locations of other succulents, the habitat of Dudleya anthonyi near San Quintin in Baja California Norte, Mexico – this time  S3020.

But first we woke up to thick fog, not an unusual occurrence here. By 10:30 the fog had made way to blue skies and brilliant sunshine.

Not only are Dudleya anthonyi beautiful plants, easily confused with D. brittonii, but they grow in volcanic rock covered in lichen. Unlike D. brittonii, D. anthonyi forms a stout short trunk, covered in blackened dead leaves from which, in time, a number of heads can sprout . The old flower stalks spread out widely from between the older leaves.

As we walked around, we found plants of all ages – young seedlings to ancient plants – beautiful farina covered leaves forming perfect rosettes.

In addition to these easily recognised plants there are two other Dudleya species here: D. attenuata and D. cultrata. We were here on 6 February 2011, recorded as S2197 but did not see or record the cacti that grow here: Mammillaria dioica, Ferocactus sp (F. viridescens?), Echinocereus maritimus, shyly pushing out a single flower, and Stenocereus gummosus. All these taxa were duly photographed this time.

A well camouflaged bird startled me as it flew up from between the rocks, about 1 meter away and settled on rocks about 20 m away. The zoom lens overcame the distance and revealed a long legged burrowing owl, similar to ones I had seen in Minas Gerais, Brazil, that time nesting alongside Coleocepalocereus brevicylindrica. We were to see another couple of owls on our way to the next stop at Molino Viejo, the Old Mill – this time not a plant stop, just an excuse for a cup of coffee and a bit of souvenir hunting.

Our backs are suffering for the beating they took climbing on the rough lava rocks, but margaritas are dulling the pain nicely!