In Search of the Horticultural Big Five

South Africa Trip Expedition Log
2/5/2005 - 2/24/2005

click thumbnails to open large images in a new window

Day 14, Friday February 18, 2005

As we drove slowly along the winding mountain road toward the top, the vegetation began to change as the ground as we neared the top. As we climbed higher, we began finding more bulbs and ferns. Cyrtanthus angustifolius, Tritoniopsis antholyza, watsonias, and a small gladiolus began to be more regular occurrences.

As we passed 4,000' elevation, we entered the cloud layer and our one-lane steep mountain dirt road had become quite foggy. Everyone alternated turns walking ahead of the vehicle looking for interesting plants and watching for oncoming traffic. Carl emerged from the brush with the find of the day... a hubcap from a Volkswagen. Since we were missing two already, we were delighted when we found that it fit our Mercedes perfectly. The only difference was the insignia... surely no one would notice.

We continued to make stops as the width of the road would allow us to pull to the side. At a wonderful wet draw, we found masses of blechnum fern growing with Zantedeschia aethiopica. In the dry rock cracks was a delightful little strap-leaf fern... probably an Elaphoglossum. Nearby in a wet seep was a huge mass of a spreading blechnum. One of my more exciting finds here was an elegia, probably E. capensis. This restio has never been hardy for me, but this was a much colder growing form.

As we passed 4,500' elevation, we couldn't see more than 10' in front of us. With headlights on high, we kept our fingers crossed that no one would be coming down over the pass. Carl and Hans had walked far ahead and we had no idea what had become of them. As we finally crossed the pass at 5,024', the skies opened up to reveal bright sun. We had been on the south side of the mountain which catches all the moisture from the inland moving fronts. The north side of the mountain was consequently much drier.

We rejoined with Hans and Carl who were waiting in the sunshine and continued to explore the top of the mountain. Like the drive up, the top was very rocky, a combination of small rocks and large boulders. Around the rocks at the top, we found a fascinating small-leaf pelargonium that was unique from anything else we had seen before and quite un-geranium like. Tritoniopsis and ericas were in flower among the already finished watsonias. Amazingly, I found another patch of the normally non-hardy carpobrotus... this one at over 5,000' elevation. Surely from this elevation, it should grow back in Raleigh. The most exciting find at the top was Schizaea pectinata. Hans spotted this un-fern looking fern which resembles a grass, topped with Venus fly-trap like leaves, growing at the base of small rocks.

The downhill journey on the north side of the mountain took far less time and we were glad to be back on flat ground again. The drive down the north side of the pass is incomparably stunning as the road winds through massive vertical cliffs at roads edge. At the base of the mountain, we stopped for a very late lunch in the delightful small town of Prince Albert. After lunch, we all agreed that we would take the long loop back to the main highway, the N12 instead of renegotiating the Swartberg Pass.

As we drove along the road to Klaartstroom, we were attracted to a hillside of aloes that appeared brown and orange. From the road, these appeared to be quite ugly, but upon closer examination, my first assessment was quite wrong. Our find was Aloe microstigma, which because of the sun and drought had an amazing stress-induced coloration that was quite beautiful. It was also at this stop that Wade found a huge turtle moving among the aloes and we saw our first snake... a 4'+ brown snake that had tried to attack a 4x4 in the middle of the highway and lost.

This was obviously the day for animals. On our drive back to the hotel near the town of De Rust, we saw two more huge turtles crossing the road, along with a roadside gang of baboons that scattered back among the cliffs as we stopped for a Kodak moment. Our final stop of the day was at a lovely rest area along the highway. The interpretive display of flowers was delightful and the workers encouraged us to follow the rock path to the waterfall. 'Only a few hundred meters', they repeated. We all took their que and took the walk only to reach the waterfall and find no water. Due to a lack of rain, the falls had become completely dry. This type of disconnect between the workers not understanding that a waterfall should have water to be interesting was prevalent throughout our trip.

We returned in time to spend another hour at a Internet café trying to whittle down the backlog of e-mail messages. Two nights in Oudtshoorn had also given us a chance to try several restaurants in town including one on Friday night that served Zebra along with several other of the big game species that we had seen earlier on the trip. This is a really delightful town that is certainly worthy of a visit when you're in the area.

Day 15, Saturday February 19

Further down the road, we stopped for lunch in Barrydale across from the World famous Ronnie's Sex Shop... or at least that's what the sign said. Judging from the large numbers of bikers that were parked out front, the sign must have been right. After lunch, we continued toward Napier. After traversing a good bit of low flat ground, we rose again as we traversed the low elevation, but beautiful Tradouws Pass. Here, we found a new delosperma relative with upright stems and bright purple flowers.

As we drove toward Napier, fatigue was evident by the lack of conversation and the more deafening lack of requests to stop and botanize. By 3pm, we were approaching Napier, when I spotted our first flowering plants of Brunsvigia orientalis. This was finally enough to stimulate everyone to hop out of the car for photographs.

From here, it was only a short drive to Cameron and Rhoda's home, so we spent the rest of the afternoon there discussing and identifying plants that we had seen and photographed since Cameron had departed. Cameron had arranged for us to stay at the Gunner's Restaurant and Lodge across the block from their home. We arrived to find a very loud party just outside the rooms, which would last until midnight. I was fortunate to get the room next to the uninsulated outer wall... lucky me. Note to all owners of bed and breakfasts... it is a very bad idea to hold loud parties next to a B&B, since the purpose of a bed and breakfast is to rest. Other than the noise and the fact that there were no way to lock our rooms, this was actually a nice place to stay.