Tag: rock

The Prince Alfred’s Pass ….

… between the towns of Avontuur in the Eastern Cape and Knysna in the Western Cape is not for the faint hearted and for small cars.

It’s 84 kilometers of poorly maintained gravel road with numerous (deep) potholes, ravines, desolation and halfway the possibility for a refreshment. It took us almost 5 hours but this offbeat track was truly worthwhile the challenge. Some stunning views; just at those locations where we could not get out of the car (on one side a ravine and the other side a rock wall). So most of the pictures are taken in and around the ‘refreshment center ( 😀 )

 

 

 

As hard as rock

This is a desert plant from Mexico. The botanical genus is Ariocarpus and it’s classified as one of the cactaceae (argh … those botanists/taxonomists… 😉 ). anyway this succulent plant is as hard as rock and in its natural habitat it’s already happy with one annually flood rain. When it’s dry for a longer period it ‘draws’ itself more or less into the soil. Fairly rare plant; even specialised nurseries normally don’t have these in stock but some collectors do. The estimated age of this plant is around 30 years.

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