The rocky peninsula that juts at a right angle into the Atlantic at Plettenberg Bay was wet when we got there. Enveloped by soft cloud. I was wearing a white sundress, with kikoi and bikini as back-up for the blazing day I had been expecting. We even stopped in Plett for more Factor 30. I am convinced it was the wuss-combo of sundress and white sneakers that caused the hissy fit on the slippery rock place, one I'd been terrified of ever since I was little. Later I took off the dress and put on the kikoi and bikini and hiked like that in the rain, feeling wet but human.
We had a dry window of about an hour or so before the squall we could see coming in from the sea overtook us. Then I put my camera away, at the top of the big dune, and Vince waited hopefully for more massive waves to break again over the island below, but they wouldn't. We could see a few hikers straggling from the island back to the mainland (a beach joins them) as the rain hit, and later we met up at the slippery rock again, this time from the other side. Their slow progress emboldened me and I didn't disgrace myself or embarass Vince.
For his fortitude, and for not pushing me into the sea, Vince gets many minky points. I'll have to explain about those another time.
What is this? Help. It covered a lower shrub and was flowering profusely.
Crassula whatis?
Jamesbrittenia tenuifolia. Ha!
...and lichen is a mystery to me, but there was a lot, and very beautiful. Even the lichen had lichen.
Grass thingy.
I think the smell of the seal colony might have been to blame. That and running shoes with soles that would send Teflon engineers in a trance. ;-) But in the end, well done!
ReplyDelete"And where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
Crassula saxifraga?
ReplyDeleteDu bist my rock, man!
ReplyDeleteJay, yes..maybe. I never realized HOW many crassulas there are. Question: my two cousins said that chinkerinchees are not originally indigenous to SA, that they came form Europe yonks ago. I took issue with that. What would Kirsten say? Since he discovered and described Ornithogalum kirstenii, does that not imply that the genus hails from our shores?
This was the same occasion on which they refused to let Vince and me eat a very nice- looking cake that my aunt had procured for our tea. We were allowed to eat the scones, though.
Hello Cousins.
According to John Manning, and Kirsten ( who would have been 29 today ) "Widespread through Africa and Eurasia into India but mainly in southern Africa ±200 spp; ±70 fynbos spp."
ReplyDeleteWhere was the cake from?
Hello Cousins.
Thank you Jay. I hope you don't mind the little video for Kirsten. It was like being in church, up there, but better...
ReplyDeleteI don't know where the cake was from, but it had real fruit all over the top of it, as though it had been baked with the fruit, then turned upside-down. My cousins said it was too pretty to eat. I think they wated it for themselves.
Hello cousins.
My aunt's gooseberry jam ROCKED, though!
Don't mind at all. He would have loved that place.
ReplyDelete