South Africa, North Cape 2013

Day 1| We started our trip landing in Capetown Air Port, and went to get the suplies for the next days.At Nordhoeck beach we saw many birds including beautiful Flamengos.

Day 2| we headed north, direction Calvinia passing on the way by Algiria and Clanwiliam, on the way we saw beautiful scynerry and many plants, in late afternoon we arrived at Calvinia and met Theo, a Lithop specialist, we stayed at Theos parents house for the next 3 nights, it was very comfortable and pleasent.

DAY 3| we left Calvinia direction Ceres on a long dirt road , our aim was to see Lithops Comptonii and many other sacculants. Half way we stopped at a small country store, and after getting speicial localy made Beer , we came back to our Bucky and discovered we have a flat tire, with Theo help we got our spare wheel only to earn it can not beused, it was our great luck that one guy at this stop had a pucture repair kit, and after short while we were on the road again.after few hours we reached the location of Lithop comptonii, and it was worth the very long ride to rich the place.on the way back to Calvinia we stopped at the location of Lithop Comptonii Vr Weberii, the plants were in very good shape and it was beautiful.

Day 4 | We drove from calvinia to the direction of Lorisfontein and the plan was to see Lithop Otzeniana, we arrived at the locality,and saw many beautiful lithops, in addition we saw titanopsis, Conos and Aloes and as well more beautiful scynery.on the way back to Calvinia we folloed Theo to a very rough dirt road to the locality of lithop Viridis, the plants were beautifully setteled between very nice stones.Not far we saw two different kind of Conos, up on arriving to Calvinia we discovered we have once again flat tire, and once again with Theo’s help the tire was repaired.

Day 5|We started with the decision that at least three tieres of our bucky need to be replaced before we start our way to Springbok. It took 3-4 hours before we got the car rentals company approval to replace 3 tires.than we headed to Springbok through Vanrhynsdorp.We arrived in springbok late in the afternoon and met Karel , a plant guide. we stayed at his place for 2 Nights, great acomedation and very nice company.

Day 6| We drove with Karel to Aggneys hoping to see the extreemly rear Cono Burgeri.the locality is in a mine teretory and it took some arangments made by Karel to allow us in the area.The plants were beautiful and not many of them can be seen.We left the mine area to visit the Arab farm where we saw Lithop Marmurata among many other scculants.from Arab we continued to Concordia on a dirt road direction Poffader, at some point we stopped to see again Lithop Marmurata, conos and others.

Day 7| We left Springbok driving North towards the Namibian boarder planning to see Lithop Dinterii, again the locality was in a mining area, and it was with Kareks asistance that we got to see the plants. We climbed on a big mountain with beautiful qwartz roacks and magnificent view arround, towards the top we saw Lithop Dinterii and many Pachipodium Namaqwanum, on the way backwe stopped next to Steinkopf to see the beautiful Charidopsis Pecularis and other succulants.

Day 8| We went to visit our freinds Mariki and Weich at the Kangnas Farm, where  we stayed with them for one night. The visit with them was very nice as usual, and we had great time, on the long walks we took aroound the farm we saw many lithops Marmurata, conos and many other plants.

Day 9| We started early  morning touring the Farm with Weich learning a bit about farming and later on continued with Mariki on a long walk to a different stpot to explore some other plants, in the afternoon we drove back to sprinbock and stayed in our usual place at the Beautiful Mountain view Lodge .

Day 10| Todays plan is to visit the magnificent Umdaus, the day was cloudy and rainy but we went on anyway. We climbed up the Southern mountain ridge and saw on the waymany succulants in flower.Among the plants we saw, Conos, Aloes, Pachipodium. Haworthia, Euphorbia, and many others.As we got to the top the weather cleared and the scenery was amazing.

Day 11| We left Springbok driving south in the direction of Garis hoping to find Lithops Divergens, we followed the directions given to us by Karel, and we found them, the plants were almost covered as they did not get water for long time, never the less the plants were beautiful.on the way south we stopped north off Vanrhynsdorp at Groot Graf Water to see Argioderma, Conophytum and many other. In the evening we arrived at Clanwilliam were we spent the night.

Day 12| We left early morning heading West to Lamberts Bay to see the large congregations of Gannets, we were lucky to see them in huge flock and had a great opportunity to take the most amazing photographs, we drove back to Capetown on a small country road next to the seashore were we saw Flamingos and other sea birds.

Days 13-15 | We spent the next three days resting and sightseeing in Nordhook Area which we love so much.

Remarks: Dont forget to check the tires before you rent your Bucky, especially when youplan long drives
This time of year was raining up north
When there are road works on the N7 , try to take the longer way arround…
Conos and Lithops are not flowering