A day in the field with Ernst

Last week Ernst, my botanist friend from Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens invited me to join him and 4 others on a day long field trip south east of Cape Town. Ernst is currently working on 3 books, one of which is about the aloes of South Africa and Namibia. Just in case you were wondering, there have been 26 newly named aloes since the last book which was written about 40 years ago. Today’s expedition was to get cuttings of one of those recently identified aloes and to document a few others in the field for the book. I confess, I’ve been an aloe groupie since the 80’s and I was thrilled to tag along!

Our first destination was a private fynbos nature reserve simply named Farm 215. This property of about 2000 acres was purchased 10 years ago by a passionate conservationist who is working hard to eliminate the invasive “alien” plants from the farming days of long ago while encouraging the native fynbos to reclaim the area. It’s a slow process, but he is making progress, and amidst the transition, he’s finding some real jewels. Ernst has recently confirmed that one of these finds on Farm 215 is indeed a “new” aloe species. Ernst has named it Aloe juddii after a well known botanical illustrator from South Africa. As we climbed up a rocky hillside, we were all a little giddy to find this inconspicuous plant thriving in its small but protected habitat. And as if on cue, we began photographing the newest star on the block! The plant paparazzis had arrived!

Only a few days prior to our little excursion, a freak spring storm had ravaged this area of the Western Cape, flooding towns and thousands of acres of farm land. The damage has been estimated to be nearly 10 billion dollars! As we drove through the countryside, we saw firsthand the devastation. No sooner had we realized the severity of the flooding, we were literally stopped in our tracks by submerged roads. At each flooded point, and there must have been about six on our route, we would stop the van, try to get a sense of how much water was covering the section of road, we’d all take a deep breath, and then Ernst would put the car in first gear and off we’d drive… into the water!

During this day of driving through rivers and photographing aloes in the wild, we took a little side trip and headed to Cape Agulhas, the true southernmost tip in Africa! It’s also the official point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans “meet”. Aside from an impressive 160 year old light house and a few worn interpretive signs, there’s nothing much to distract your thoughts as you look out to sea from the edge of this great continent. The rocky shores are treacherous, the rogue waves can reach 90 feet, the wind blows with a mighty force, and if you look hard enough, you might just see Vasco De Gama out there in the distant!