Eastern cape trip

Crawford Neil Neil.Crawford@volvo.com
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:28:14 PST
 Just a note that we had a wonderful holiday in South Africa, we got
back on Sunday.
I have only just begun the long job of sorting photos, so will probably
be back with 
questions. It was entirely different this time, in September 2006 there
were flowers
everywhere. This time it was more like a treasure hunt, the nice plants
were there, but you had 
to look for them. We started at the Harald Porter garden outside Cape
Town, where we
struggled up the Leopards kloof to see Disa uniflora at the waterfall,
we finally found a couple 
in flower, despite being told at the reception that they were finished.
Then we found ourselves
locked out on returning and had to climb the barbed wire equipped gate!
Next stop was Napier on the Overberg where we saw the Blue Disa, Cape
Agapanthus and Haemanthus sanguineus
(April fool) . Please excuse spelling and name mistakes, I'm just
writing from the top of my head
and we haven't been able to check id:s yet.
In Barrydale we went on a hike with Hildegard Clous to see Disa
Cardinalis,  and found it by
a little stream, that was a stunning place.
Next was Oudtshoorn with mostly succulents, then Wilderness where we
found Scadoxis in the
forests, also nice Streptocarpus growing wild.
Tsitsikamma provided more Agapanthus (praecox?) and Tulbaghia (
violacea?), we will have to check that.
Oyster bay was a nice place, but I'm afraid I can't even remember
everything we saw there.
Next was Glenavon near Somerset East, where we got into the summer
rainfall flora, and rain it did!
We had a very wet trip up to the waineek flower reserve with Fiona
Brown, but well worth it, there were two 
types of Dierama (Harebell) up there, we haven't been able to id them
for certain yet, various 
bulbines and even a magnificent Encephalartos (cycad) , on the way down
we found a lovely Haemanthus 
(carneus we thought,perhaps).
We were luckier with the weather in Hogsback, which is way up in the
Amathole mountains
and a lovely place, we met up with some local botanists and had a great
day in the grassveld on
the mountains. Highlights from there were Harveya speciosa, more
Dieramas, a Nerine sp. and a
beautiful Gladiolus Ecklonii, oh and lots of red hot pokers.
We flew home from Port Elizabeth, but we had time to go out on the last
morning with Paul Martin 
who does Eco-tours, mostly birding, but he knew his plants and was able
to show us Strelitzia juncea
and many other plants of the Eastern thicket vegetation.
Best regards
Neil 
 


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