Last of the Lomatia

Wondering what's going on here? This is a clipping of the 43,600-year-old Lomatia Tasmanica, propagated in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.

There is only one single living individual Lomatia Tasmanica left in the world. It flowers, rarely, and there are pollen and a stigma in each flower, but as the plant is a triploid, it is sterile. [corrected from original post.] And it is 43,600 years old. How is that possible? It's growing clonally, as you've heard me talk about before: it continues to send up new shoots, without the introduction of new genetic material.

I was not granted permission to visit the Lomatia in the wild (more on my thoughts about the Tasmanian Parks Department later), though I was glad to see it in the Gardens. The clippings propagated there and one in Canberra are the only other places it can be found in the world, and even then it is not on public display. The clippings are so sensitive, in fact, that the only time one spent half a day in public view in slighly different conditions, it died. That hardly bodes well for its survival.

The Lomatia Tasmanica is continuing its line in the only possible way it can: by cloning itself over and over again, theoretically forever, though that is unlikely given the instability of our climate to come.

12,000-year-old Antarctic Beech

This image is of a fairy ring of Antarctic Beech which is probably around 12,000 years old, living in Queensland, Australia. The ring of trees is a single, clonal individual, growing vegetatively (as opposed to adding genetic material from another individual as in sexual reproduction.)

There are a number of other clonal Antarctic Beech living in the area, though not all have been studied. I was lucky enough to have botanist Rob Price, a veritable expert in all the local flora and fauna, guide me out to this stand, as well as others in the area. (Rob first got in touch with me after seeing my TED talk. So glad he did, as I otherwise might have missed them.)

Why Antarctic? These beauties used to cover Antarctica in its milder days, before its present iced-over state. As Gondwana broke apart 180 million years ago and the South got colder, the Antarctic Beeches worked themselves up to more suitable climes. Talk about going the distance.

THE ALTIPLANO

GETTING THERE IS HALF THE BATTLE

ok. so i last left off in arica, where i was getting ready to head up to the altiplano with eliana belmonte, expert in the workings of the atacama, and marisol, our dependable driver. eliana borrowed a camioneta (pick up truck) from the university museum, and we lit out into the desert. as we drove out of arica we were soon in some of the baddest bad lands i´ve ever seen - most assuredly the absolute desert. not a single thing growing. the roads where steep and windy, and we were climbing pretty quickly into higher and higher altitudes.

we stopped along the way at some delightful friends of eliana´s, who run a sort of DIY desert tour and education program. the outside looked a bit like a bright hippie compound, and inside there were all sorts of treasures - fossils, arrowheads, old pottery, star maps, a picture of einstein, and what at first looked like a dialysis machine which was actually oxygen. we were already at 10,000 feet, and i felt my heart pumping faster than usual. i had some oxygen and was taught a breathing exercise: take one hand, cross it in front of you, and hold the opposite nostril shut. breathe deeply. switch sides and do it again. repeat 10 times. after that, some oxygen, and some tea prepared from coca leaves and various twigs from plants retrieved by the kids from right outside, i was feeling right again.


PUTRE

that afternoon we made it to putre, a little town even higher in the altiplano, to acclimate before heading further up and out in search of the llareta. we all stayed in one room at the hotel kukuli, in clean, plain room with 3 beds taking up most of the floor space. after walking around town a bit in the late afternoon light, we headed to la paloma for dinner. its the kind of place that has one thing on the menu for the day, so since i don´t eat meat this posed a bit of a problem. i asked if they could fix me some vegetables to which the reluctantly agreed. eliana suggested they make some pasta as well -- verduras con fideos. what i got was a plate of spaghetti noodles. with nothing else. not so much as some salt and pepper. i tried adding what ever condiments were on the table; salt, salsa picante. it just wasn´t worth it. once back in sanitago i learned that la paloma has all sorts of businesses in putre - the restaurant, the hotel, and store, a postal service...but their primary focus is drug running over the near-by bolivian border. hence their lack of concern about my dinner.


THE LLARETA & PARQUE LUACA

the next day, after a good night´s sleep, it was time to look for the llareta. we drove out of town and further up into the mountains, now onto gravel roads. the landscape had changed significantly on our drive from arica to putre -- we started with the driest area nearest to the coast, eventually reached some candelabra type cacti that reminded me to the quiver tree (actually an aloe) found in namibia, and then into desert shrubs, some even green. when i saw the llareta for the first time i recognized it from photos i had seen immediately. it´s a rich green and as strange as i had imagined. many of them dotted the hillside, some more strangely formed than others, sort of like mutated topiary on steroids. i scrambled up a steep incline to get a better look and had to catch myself. we were up around 15,000 feet, and altitude sickness is nothing to take lightly. i did the breathing exercise and my equilibrium returned.

after i had taken it all in, we drove back to the main road and then on to the amazing parque lauca. as we entered the park flamigoes strolled around in a mountain lake, llamas and alpacas grazed, and enormous snow-topped mountains jutted from the high plains. after a walk along one of the lakes, home to many species of birds, eliana and i went up to the ranger station to ask about more llareta. the ranger agreed to accompany us to a rather steep and rocky site which he said was home to the oldest llaretta. we bounced along a rough road down to a lovely spot. the llareta were big, but probably not so much as the ones i photographed earlier. like many species, the are a number of factors involved in dating them, and a single plant has not yet been declared the oldest. so here´s to the educated guess.


MUD SLINGING

pleased as punch at the successful day of shooting, we drove back towards putre and made our planned stop at the termas, natural hot springs which can be found in the area. while there are some proper pools, my favorites by far were some pits dug into the earth, filled with varying degrees of hot water. better still was the mud pit, where you could add a little more hot water and take a shovel full of mud. exactly what a mud mask was meant to be. unfortunately the scene was slightly spoiled by some locals drinking in the pools. there´s a reason they tell you not to drink in hot tubs. it had definately gone to their heads.


LITTLE EATHQUAKES

i almost forgot to mention -- there are a lot of earthquakes in the region, sometimes as frequently as every day. apparently i experienced a couple while there, but i didn´t feel a thing.

PHILLY & CHILE

hello out there. it's that time again...i'm heading out into the world in search of more old things.

BUT FIRST, PHILLY

before heading to south america, i'm heading as far south as the city of brotherly love to attend the closing reception for "IN THE BEGINING: exploring origins in contemporary art," an exhibition created by the graduate humanities department at the university of pennsylvania. a 44 x 54" print of one of my 2,000-year-old welwitchias will be on view. feel free to swing by if you're in town...fox art gallery, feb 29th (leap day!), 5 pm - 7 pm.

NEXT UP: CHILE (BY WAY OF CANADA)

i'm getting to chile however my frequent flier ticket dictates, and if that means going to toronto and retracing airspace back towards sanitago so be it. heck, it'll give me a chance to stock up on maple products on the way home. but i digress...

it's the tail end of summer down in chile. once there i'll be popping in an out of santiago several times as i make my way to the atacama desert of the very north and down to the valdivian temperate rain forest of the south. according to the internet, chile is anywhere between 2500 and 7833 miles long. (it really is amazing how difficult it is for people to keep even the driest of facts straight.) but i get the point: as much as a 20- or 30-hour bus trips have their own special charms, i'll be taking some intra-chile flights. chile is lucky to boast both of the oldest living things in south america: the ALERCE and the LLARETA. i want to spend as much time as much quality time with them as possible.

LLARETA (or YARETA)

the llareta might give the welwitchia a run for its money in terms of strange and interesting lifeforms thriving in inhospitable climates. first of all, it calls the atacama desert home. the atacama is the most arid place on earth, referred to as "ABSOLUTE DESERT" at its center. (philosophers: any possible relations to "absolute elsewhere?") some parts have not seen a single drop of rain since record keeping began. but lest we get too philosphical, the absurd comes to the rescue: the llareta is a member of the umbelliferae family making it a cousin of parsley.

so i'm going to find some 3,000-year-old parsley in the absolute desert.

the llareta actually looks more like mounds of moss, growing no more than a centemeter a year. because it is dry and dense, it burns well (like peat.) its function as fuel is actually endangering its survival, as even park rangers charged with protecting it have been know to burn it to keep warm on cold nights. i will find the oldest specimins with the help of botanist eliana belmonte. (eliana is a good friend of my friend tonia steed's step mother. tonia, who lives in seattle, agreed to meet me at the home of her step brother javier brstilo & his wife, artist bruna truffa in santiago which lead to the connection with eliana...but more on that story later.)

so from santiago it's up to arica, which is a stone's throw from the peruvian border. who knows, i may in fact throw a stone over, or perhaps just, uh, go for a visit. (whenever i think of borders now, the bone-dry riverbed separating south africa from zimbabwe in the kruger comes to mind. there is no fence, but there are lions. they tend to be indiscriminate in refusing entry.)

at any rate, more on the llareta from the field. after the desert it's off to the temperate rain forest...

THE ALERCE

the alerce (fitzroya cupressoides to be more precise) is a conifer in the cypress family, related to the giant sequoia found in north america. i'm in search of the "alerce millinarian", thought to be 3622 years old. i'll be meeting with the alerce's foremost expert, dr. antonio lara at the universidad austral de chile to get my facts straight. (many thanks to nate stephenson at the sequoia national park for helping to make that connection -- it's no coincidence that the alerce and sequoia experts are personally acquainted.)

the alerce millianiarn lives in REGION X. (i love the mysterioso, bermuda triangle quality, though i've since learned that the roman numeral has been repaced with the more descriptive "rivers region.") i'll be flying down to puerto montt (gateway to patagonia) and driving back up to the valdivia area before heading out to the national monument where it lives. (i have *got* to learn how to drive a manual transmission. it can be pretty hard to find an automatic 4x4 in certain far-flung places.) after that it's south of puerto montt to the ALERCE ANDINO NATIONAL PARK. the park is home to many old growth alerce, and the stump of what would have been the oldest known specimen.

stay tuned. more on all of this as it happens....

A TREE GROWS IN FLORIDA

REPORT FROM THE LECTERN

back in september i was fortunate enough to be invited to speak about my work at the cornell fine arts museum at rollins college in winter park, FL. artist rachel simmons (whom you may remember from my time in scotland) is a professor at rollins and also happens to have a fantastic exhibition of her "wonders" work at the museum through the end of december. it was great to give my first talk on this work, and as an added bonus i was fortuitous enough to stumble upon another OLTW right in the area.

at the time i was fresh from my african and european marathon trip over the summer, so the passport-free jetblue flight from JFK to orlando was a piece of cake. (one of rachel's colleagues had asked her if i'd be ok finding my way on my own from the terminal out to the curb where i'd be picked up. i had to laugh.)


THE SENATOR TREE: 3,500 YEAR OLD BALD CYPRESS

if getting to florida was a piece of cake, visiting the senator was a cake walk. the following day rachel, her husband and daughter and i jumped in their minivan and drove to the big tree park where the senator lives. (the land, tree included, was donated to the county by a senator. between that and big tree park i'm getting the sense that folks are pretty literal around here.) a newly constructed boardwalk led from the parking lot to the tree a short way off. a 2,000 year old bald cypress, lady liberty, is just a little further down the path. i made some photographs and met up with my party who had made their way back to the playground in the parking lot.

SIBERIAN BACTERIA IN COPENHAGEN

WEEK 8: INTO THE LAB

so there i was. the last stop on my trip, and my first time doing artwork in a biology lab. i was meeting with martin bay hebsgaard, a PhD candidate in ancient DNA and evolution at the niels bohr institute at the university of copenhagen. i was put in touch with martin by sarah stewart johnson, a PhD candidate in planetary science at MIT, and a primary researcher on the siberian bacteria. working with eske willerslev, director of the ancient DNA group, sarah's research is about to be published by the proceedings of the national academy of sciences. their remarkable findings show that the bacteria were not lying dormant in the permafrost, but rather showed continuous DNA repair -- an indication that these ancient cells have been continuously living. for how long?

folks, we have a winner. 400,000 to 600,000 years.

these findings are particularly interesting to sarah, who is working on a dissertation entitled "mars in the late noachian: evolution of a habitable surface environment." her findings here on earth raise the point that similar discoveries of viable ancient life are possible on mars or europa (one of jupiter's moons) if ever such life did in fact exist there. um...wow.

but back to the earth. first stop, the freezer. it was packed with soil samples from canada, hungary, and siberia. i only needed a small quantity to view under the microscope, so we headed into the clean lab (kept clean with UV light and positive air pressure) in our white safety suits.

yep. that's yours truly.

it was hot as all get-out in there, so thankfully i could do the actual work en plein air. well, outside of the suit, at least. martin carefully transfered a small amount of the soil into another container, which we would take with us to a different building to take a look under the microscope. henirk glenner, a colleague of martin's, allowed me to use his digital imaging setup to photograph. it works like a regular microscope -- we prepared slides, adjusted the magnification, focus, and light -- the only difference being that a specialized digital imaging component is attached both to the microscope and a computer. an imaging application allows you to see what's under the microscope on the screen, make exposure adjustments, and then capture the image. i was transfixed for days, changing views and settings and magnifications.

the research done on this bacteria (class: actinobacteria, many within the order micrococcaceae and genus arthrobacter ) was not done visually, so i likely produced some of the first images of it -- or at least where it lives. it was difficult to tell what i was looking at, and i probably needed magnification powers beyond what was available. not to mention the question of how long the bacteria can survive at room temperature. so i created images according to my own aesthetic choices within the given scientific parameters, leaving some questions unanswered.

it was a thrilling last stop on a truly eye-opening trip.

oh, and i want a microscope.

THE FORTINGALL YEW

i arrived in scotland as the sun went down. it was after 10 pm and all the customs officials had already called it a night, so i headed right to the rental car desk. by this point driving on the left side of the road didn't require a second thought, though driving in the poorly-signed streets of edinburgh without a navigator to read my google directions did prove a bit tricky. i did manage to stay on track, however, after a quick check-in with the A to Z at a petrol station. the next morning i drove out of edinburgh towards perthshire. with something that i have to attribute to good travel karma, when i arrived in aberfeldy (the town where i was staying) i somehow managed to coast right up to the street i was looking for, just as i was going to have to consult a map or a local. after settling in i continued my drive to the even smaller village of fortingall. in a second stroke of luck, i had an entire precipitation-free afternoon to photograph. rain set in later that night and didn't stop until i was back in edinburgh.

the fortingall yew (yes: yews are conifers, ewes are female sheep), somewhere between 2000 and 5000 years old (probably closer to the former than the latter), lives within the confines of a churchyard, further confined by its own tourist-proof stone wall. the area is steeped in history, not to mention incredibly beautiful, so its popularity is hardly surprising. however, the increase in traffic lead to substantial souvenir-taking of the yew's bark, endangering the health of the tree. hence the wall.

while it seems to be undisputed that the fortingall yew is the oldest tree in europe, this was another case of shoot first, ask questions later -- i'll have to confirm the age and history of the tree with the appropriate experts after i return from this trip. after the lengths required to reach and research the baobabs and welwitchia, reaching the yew was much closer to a walk in the park.

WELWITCHIA IN THE NAMIB NAUKLUFT

JULY 15
today was the day. i was heading back into the namib naukluft desert, this time the northern part of the massive park, in order to photograph some of the oldest living welwitchia mirabilis in the world. after a walk along the ocean into swakupmund proper and another failed attempt to get online, we headed back to our b&b to await the arrival of self-taught naturalist george erb, our desert guide, as arranged by chris the previous day. i had been hoping to get in touch with someone at the desert research center to check my facts on the ages of the particular welwitchia on our route for the day, but since email was still unavailable i resigned myself to shoot first and ask questions later. i was still a bit concerned that i was not getting exactly where i needed to go -- there are some old plants recommended to me by braam van wyk that were much further south than swakupmund, which we had actually driven past the day before -- but lacking a 4x4 i dolefully drove past the turn-off. i had also learned from chris that perhaps the most ancient plants are further north at messum crater, but the site is remote even by namibian standards and the roads downright treacherous. (apparently even on the "good" road, a 4x4 is required, and if something were to go wrong it was likely to take days before a helping hand might drive by. the unexpectedness of my horseback riding incident the previous week sprung back into mind, and i took it as a lesson learned on unknown unknowns: in this case taking a potentially dangerous trip into unfamiliar desert was more foolhardy than a reflection of my dedication to my project. it helped that both chris and george seemed convinced that the plants on our route are over 2000 years old, so i relaxed into the day and we drove out of town and into the namib desert.

the welwitchia are truly strange and unique plants. surprisingly enough, they're part of the conifer family and live only in the very specific climate along the coast of namibia and angola where coastal fog and desert meet. ernst van jaarsfeld, chief horticulturalist at kirstenbosch botanical garden in cape town, met with me the following week to discuss the the welwitchia, which he described as being arrested in its juvenile stage. technically, the welwitchia has a trunk (when pressed for the defining attributes of a tree, ernst replied with a smile: you have to be able to to climb it), though it's unlike any trunk i've ever seen. it grows in an almost wavelike form (you can see the annual growth rings, though they're too distorted for an accurate count), and unlike anything else in the plant kingdom it grows only 2 leaves over the course of its entire life. i observed that you can think of the two leaves as baby teeth -- instead of falling out and being replaced by adult ones, imagine instead that they never fall out...and never stop growing. because of this the welwichia actually holds the record for longest leaf growth of any plant, though it's a common misconception that this distinction belongs to the raffia palm.

but back to the desert.

we drove into the park and past newly laid pipeline carrying water away from swakupmund and into the sandy expanses. george explained that the namibian government has leased out large portions of the park to international mining corporations. while they do bring in a few low-wage jobs for namibian citizens, namibia is not sharing in the profits from the mining of their natural resources. i began to wonder what weight the designation of "park" has -- many parts of the park are now off limits to the public as the mining companies are given the right to restrict access. later the in day we would drive through land marked as private access for "swakup uranium" at my coaxing -- it was the only way to get to an old acacia tree i was dying to see before sundown.

but first we drove along the welwitchia route, a self-guided driving tour that many visitors to the park take, culminating with "the big welwitchia." it is aptly named, and an incongruous sight fenced off with an escalated viewing platform with dubious stairs. there were other huge plants nearby -- just as big, really. as with any plant, light, water, nutrients, pH, and other factors can effect growth rates, but in general the bigger the welwitchia, the older the welwitchia. we abandoned the tourist route and headed to what might be an even bigger, and unfenced, specimen. apparently some radio carbon dating was done on some of the plants in the area about 10 years ago, the results of which i plan on looking into. i've heard everything between 1,500 year to 3,000 as an age estimate for the largest welwitchias. as people are more likely than not to overestimate when it comes to ages, i'm trying to parse all the data and get down to facts. as with the baobabs, it is proving to be difficult.

as the afternoon wore on we left the desert plains for the comparative green of the canyon. we drove along a bone-dry river bed, an occasional ostrich zigzagging prehistorically away from the jeep. we made it to the acacia (also known as "camel thorn tree," camels being the only animal that eat its thorny branches) that george had talked up earlier in the day. he estimated its age at 3,000 years or more. i was excited at the prospect of adding another OLTW to my list, but when i checked in with ernst the following week, he thought it unlikely that the tree is over 500 years old. it is lovely, none the less. i worry about the encroaching mining operations.

all in all it was a great day, having seen just a small part of the beautiful and varied, however unforgiving, desert. and i was content that i saw some of the oldest welwichia in the world, national plant of namibia, surviving against the odds by the most simplistic of means.

WEEK 1: BAOBABS

hello out there!

it's hard to believe it, but i've been in south africa for only one week now. i've seen and done so much already it's hard to believe so little time has gone by. let me bring you up to speed...

JULY 2: JO'BURG
christine and i, having met up at heathrow amidst attempted acts of terrorism, arrived safely in jo'burg and started in our first challenge: driving on the left hand side of the street. (i'm pleased to report we've acclimated nicely.) our time in jo'burg was quite limited -- we drove directly to diana mayne's house, who graciously put us up before heading out bright and early the next morning for the start of our baobab tour. the baobab is almost impossible to date accurately while it's still alive, so a number of likely candidates for oldest were on the itinerary.

JULY 3: THE SEGOLE BAOBAB
we started out early on a long drive into the limpopo region, heading towards the northeastern most part of the country. we had lunch en route with a forester and friend of diana's who happens to be creating a business locally sustainable business processing the oil from the baobabs, the uses for which range from soothing the skin to dressing salads.

we then got back on the road to the segole, which may or may not be the oldest living baobab. the segole is located on tribal lands, which meant leaving the tar roads as they're called, and driving on gravel. cows, donkeys, people, goats, etc, have no qualms about crossing the road at their leisure, regardless of the (exceptionally high) speed limit. i'm very sad to report that i am responsible for the loss of at least one mongoose, as at least 10 of them bounded in front of my car at once. (consider this a little obituary...)

so we finally reached the sagole, which is a strange and massive thing. it was late in the afternoon and the sound of bells and the nearby tribes people wafted over, creating a perfect atmosphere for the visit. christine and i climbed up and into the tree a bit, but the bark is very smooth the limbs steep, so we didn't get very far.

we began driving off the tribal lands and back to the tar roads as the sun was setting, local traffic buzzing on the streets as in daylight. we were heading towards the pafuri gate of the kruger park. we were staying in platform tent-camping accommodations, situated a literal stones throw from the electrified fence of the kruger (which if you're not familiar, if filled with wild game.) the gravel road to the site was very rugged, and more than once we winced for the poor car, which had already suffered a rock to the windshield earlier in the day, causing a small crack but not enough concern to do anything but keep an eye on it.)

the tents had running water (though not traditional showers -- a story for later), though the bathroom facilities were essentially located outside. i slept lightly that night, the dark woods filled with unfamiliar sounds. at one point in the night i was convinced that a monkey was outside the tent door at the sink, eating the toothpaste i had left out. i wasn't about to get up in the darkness to find out, but i awoke in the morning to find it just as i'd left it.

JULY 4: THE PAFURI BAOBAB
the next morning we awoke to cloudy skies, but rain is absolutely unheard of this time of year in the region. by the time we were inside the kruger, it was raining. we weren't deterred, however, from visiting the ancient baobab in the kruger, accompanied by park rangers, as you are not allowed off the main roads or even out of your car without an escort in most parts of the park. the skies cleared then darkened again, luckily leaving me enough time to photograph, not to mention dramatic lighting.

another favorite siting that day was a lovely grove of fever trees, which have a beautiful light green bark. they're called fever trees as they were once thought by local tribes to cause malaria. after the grove of trees we arrived on the dry banks of the limpopo river. the rangers told us that if we ran across we'd be in zimbabwe, though the lions have been acting as a sort of natural boarder patrol. we opted out.

though this being a world class game park we were hoping for some animal sightings, but the rain kept things quiet. we were lucky enough to see a number of giant tortoises that day, as well as monkeys, baboons, zebras, all sorts of birds, impala, and a handful of frogs. we couldn't wait for this unexpected weather to turn, however, so after a couple hours of trolling slowly through the park we headed towards our next destination: the sunland baobab.

a long and confusing drive later we arrived at the sunland, where we were also staying the night. no one was there to let us into our platform tents, but a few phone calls later we were let in to this struggling tourist destination in the off season.

JULY 5: THE SUNLAND BAOBAB
what makes the sunland a tourist destination? primarily the fact that it houses a bar/cafe inside the tree. it was raining steadily that morning at the sunland, but cleared in time to get some photos before heading out again, having made a new plan to re-visit the kruger the following day to try to get a glimpse of more wildlife. we canned the trip to visit the cycad forest, home of the rain queen, who apparently was doing her job a little too well.

the next and last tree on the route was the glencoe baobab, a huge and unusually symmetrical tree that lives on a private farm. the owners were happy to let us have a visit, this having been pre-arranged by diana. the flat expanse of the farm was punctuated by the tree, with sheer mountains not far in the distance. everything felt properly in scale -- and quite large. the stormy sky was braking once again, and made for a great, and once again dramatic, backdrop.

we spent the night at a lovely bed and breakfast, all the sweeter after the previous two nights.

JULY 6: THE KRUGER, OR THERE AND BACK AGAIN
the next morning we set out for three repeat visits: the glencoe, the kruger, and jo'burg. it was an ambitious plan to begin with, and we were off to a late start. the rains were finally over though, and it proved to be a great game day. i have to admit it was thrilling to spot giraffes, whole families of elephants (ellies), warthogs (warties), eagles, hippos, and sable (a rare site even for diana, who has had many a visit to the kruger.)

the plan was to leave all this and be back in jo'burg in time for dinner, where a friend of a friend was preparing dinner for us. it seemed like we might even be able to do it, even after the horrendous driving conditions through a busy yet high-speed construction zone, but when we were only 40 km away from jo'burg we hit traffic. and i mean traffic. we inched along for a while, and then finally settled into a dead stop. people turned off their engines and waited. dinner long since canceled, we arrived back at diana's house at midnight. after 10 + hours of hard driving, i was completely spent.

JULY 7: UNDERGROUND FORESTS
christine and i awoke early the next morning back in jo'burg, just in time to bid goodbye to diana and leave again. first stop: the pretoria botanical garden, where i had arranged to meet with dr. braam van wyk, a biologist there. i had first contacted braam to get information on the baobabs, and it turned out that he was wealth of information on other oldest living things as well, especially something referred to as underground forests, which are clonal colonies of pyrogenic geoxylic suffrutices. think of them as whole trees that have retreated underground, where only the very tips of the crowns make an appearance above ground. the underground forests could be hundreds of thousands of years old, as like other clones they could in theory be immortal. these have the additional advantage of not having had to survive through an ice age. i photographed what i could see at the botanical garden (which to, quote braam, is an ugly botanical garden.) more about these fascinating plants later.

next stop was our rescheduled dinner from the night before, which became a lunch back in jo'burg before heading to the airport.

time was tight, but after a delightful meal and quick drive back the airport, we dropped off the car, crack in the windshield having grown by several inches, and made it to the plane with time to spare.

next stop: cape town.

JULY 8: CAPE TOWN
so now we are up to speed, and i am writing this now at an internet cafe on long street. christine and i arrived safely as the sun was going down, picked up the new rental car, and drove into town to the backpackers where we met up with rachel holstead, fresh in from ireland.

we slept in a bit today and headed over to the kirstenbosch botanical garden -- as decidedly lovely as the the pretoria gardens were not. afterwards we headed down the coast where we may or may not have seen penguins on our way to cape point, which may or may not be the meeting point of the atlantic and indian oceans. (a friend who had joined us for the day astutely pointed out that they were simply human designations, so it didn't much matter.) the gates to cape point park were closed by the time we arrived, unfortunately. so we drove on, stopping at an ostrich farm and various look-outs over the ocean until darkness overtook us and we continued the windy drive back to town.

tomorrow we light out towards nambia....