Cannon Rocks

First night of camping was at Cannon Rocks, about 125 or more km east of Port Elizabeth. We left the conference mid-afternoon and arrived at our campsite just after sunset. It took us a bit longer than normal for that distance because we drove the back roads. We stopped to watch some secretary birds and to do a bit of birding along the way. That was lovely - I have five new life birds from this casual travel.

The coast line here is lined with sand dunes, which is the perfect habitat for Hyobanche robusta - the aim of this bit of field work. I'm going to explore the dunes near our campsite before we head over to Boknesstrand, where I've collected previously. We'll visit one other site that I've collected and then just mosey on over to Storms River mouth to camp tonight. After these two nights on the coast line, we're heading up to Anysberg nature reserve in the Little Karoo. We'll have three nights there to camp, which gives us plenty of opportunity to explore the area, looking for Hyobanche rubra and H. glabrata.

The weather is a bit blustery on the coast line. All night long the tent was flapping in the wind and it was a lovely bit of white noise with which to fall asleep. I awoke at first light and wondered where Chirri and Mingmar were with the tea - I don't think camping will ever be the same again after having done the Nepal trek last year.