On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

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ChrisR
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On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by ChrisR »

Why do some of the best Conophytums have to grow so high up? Often at the top of HUGE mountains! I must admit to being an idle sod at heart. I would much prefer pottering around on granite domes or quartz flats, than clambering up mountains in strong winds or rain or hot sun, often surrounded by tiny flies looking to enter every damp orifice they can find. Often slipping on loose scree, often out of breath and thirsty and having to stop for a rest every few minutes. If it wasn't the draw of knowing what is (or could be) up there to satisfy my obsession with conos, there is no way I'd ever do it.

So I need motivation. I've been lucky to have it with both my travelling companions, previously with Derek Tribble and lately with Andy Young. I know for a fact I wouldn't have seen or found what I have without them being much less idle than I am – and better than I at map reading and navigation.

And so it was on this last trip in April 2013. Andy said he wanted to climb Rosyntjieberg. I tried to suggest reasons why not to. It is a massive mountain in the middle of nowhere.....well the middle of the Richtersveld actually, but when you look at it on a map – it's the middle of nowhere! Others have been up there – granted not very many, but those who have are well respected and would have left little new to find. Hammer & Williamson, Ernst van Jaarsveld, Peter Bruyns, Jean-Andre Audissou, Petr Pavelka and recently Florent Grenier and his dad, amongst others. There are three Conophytums reported growing there, two of which we'd already seen elsewhere, C.stephanii and C.angelicae ssp. tetragonum. The third one is endemic, C.taylorianum ssp. rosynense (at least it's not yet been reported from anywhere else). And as one of Andy's ambitions is to eventually see and record all recognised cono taxa in habitat, ssp.rosynense is impossible unless you climb Rosyntjieberg. We were told C.angeliae ssp. tetragonum grows at the top. And the top is about 1000 metres or 3000 feet. My name is Chris Rodgerson, not Chris Bonnington (or any other well known mountaineer you could mention).......

And as it is so remote we would really have to camp. I hate camping. I'm preferably a 3 or 4 star hotel sort of chap, but granted, I know they are few and far between in conoland but as long as the bed is clean, I can get a shower and a hot meal, I'm set. And there are plenty of places like that in South Africa, but none near enough to Rosyntjieberg unfortunately. So camping it would have to be – but that's altogether another story - which should you get the chance to see Andy or Alice give a talk on South Africa 2013 I do encourage you to go, if only for a chuckle.

Anyway, my reluctance and excuses and (I thought) sound reasoning fell on deaf ears and in the late afternoon of 26th April 2013 after a long drive on a rough road – no – cannot call it a road – a rocky track at best - I found myself here...........in the middle of nowhere.
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There were actually only a couple of tracks to choose from and without a 4X4 you can forget it. It's so big that we had a couple of choices how to approach it. We chose to reach this point, which got us to within about one kilometer or so of the base of the mountain. It doesn't really look like an individual mountain and if it were not for Andy's mapping skills I would have no idea where we were. Rosyntjieberg sort of merges with Oemsberg to the left (west) of the picture and Mount Terror (I kid you not) to the right (east) of the picture. After setting up camp (I did help a bit, honest) we walked a bit closer to look at possible routes up there and decide on the plan of attack for the next morning.

At 8am and I must admit I'm surprised to say, not a bad nights sleep, we set off walking. Although I knew that Florent had spent the night up there, I drew a line at that. We'd take a full day and hopefully find our three conos. We wouldn't normally set off so early but it was so unseasonably hot this time – most afternoons had been over 100F – that we thought we should make an early start to make distance while it was still relatively cool. We normally carry a litre of water, but this time we knew we'd be out longer than usual, so Andy & I took two litres each and a bite for lunch. As often happens on long walks, we soon split up with Alice & Alan behind us. No problem with that – each to his own pace and we have a few years on them. After a couple of hours I thought we'd done very well. Andy (being younger than me of course) had set the pace and I was probably 15 minutes behind him. The going wasn't too bad, not too loose underfoot. But one of the disadvantages with succulent hunting so far north, is that there aren't many succulents! The closer you get to the Orange river (and here we were just a few kilometers away) the more arid it gets, therefore fewer plants in general. So it's a bit of a slog when it's just walking and walking with little of succulent interest to break the monotony. You just have to appreciate the views and the solitude.

But my radio walkie-talkie crackled into life with Andy telling me he'd found C.angelicae ssp. tetragonum. Was I pleased? Maybe we wouldn't have to go to the top after all! The news made me walk a bit faster and I soon saw where he was. A sort of light brown shale formation was erupting from the ground, so obviously different and where the cono had made home. It was very similar rock to where we'd previously seen tetragonum at Klipbok mine. The edges of this shale were like sharp knives so it made for cautious manoeuvring around it to take pictures. I would hate to fall on the stuff.
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It was nice to see a few flowers and we wondered if it ever completely throws off it's sheath of old dry leaves. I'll certainly not be going back at the end of any winter to find out, but I think during winter was when Florent went so maybe he can answer that one. It's known from quite a few places but is usually quite a rare plant, not seen in great numbers or over wide areas. But it's easy to grow from seed and easy to cultivate.
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Andy radioed to Alan to give him the GPS of where we were so he and Alice could see it on their way up. He called back a half hour so later to confirm he'd found it – but also to ask why we hadn't warned him about the big black cobra which had reared up in front of him!

So, invigorated by the find and the rest to take pictures and a drink, we set off once more. We'd been very lucky in that the route we'd chosen was in full morning shade due to a large part of the mountain pushing up on our right (east) side. It was getting hot but manageable. But now the going got harder with large boulders and rocks to climb over, up a steep incline. I was taking ages having to stop for a breath every few minutes and again, Andy was soon well ahead of me. After an hour or so I reached the top of this rocky slope to see that Andy had turned a corner to climb higher to check out a large outcrop of rock. No point us both going up there unless he found something, so I scanned my options and headed for a shady cliff a few hundred yards away in the opposite direction. We'd had luck with shady cliffs previously so it had to be a possibility. I took a moment to see how far we'd come in almost 4 hours:

The view back down the mountain.
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When I reached the south-facing vertical cliff face I felt we were onto something. I looked it over high & low and thought I could see cono clusters high up. I found a ledge which stuck out and decided only real rock climbing would get me up there – we'd come so far it had to be done. Andy told me to be careful and said it wasn't for him (it wasn't for me really either!) but I managed to get up there to find a few dead clusters and eventually some nice plants of Conophytum taylorianum ssp. rosynense. You can see a plant in flower below me in the bottom right of the picture
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Chris Rodgerson- Sheffield UK BCSS 27098

See www.conophytum.com for ca.4000 photos and growing info on Conophytum, Crassula & Adromischus.
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ChrisR
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by ChrisR »

Some were in surprisingly good condition, but we had been told the whole west coast had recently benefited from 2-3 days of heavy rain.
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Here is Andy on the ground below my perch on the cliff. I hope my wife never sees this......
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Andy was working his way along the cliff and did find a few more clusters at eye level. We were fortunate to find a few at the end of their flowering period.
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So two down and one to go. We discussed how much our previous experience on the shady cliffs of Augrabies had helped us here and so it continued to do so. As before, the cliff here turned a corner to provide a different south-west facing aspect so we again pushed our way through sharp bushes to reach it. We looked up together and both saw small, greyish mounds of C.stephanii, high up on the vertical cliff. Success!! But there was no way to climb up there.
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It's amazing how they survive where water just runs straight off. But this is another cono which takes to pot culture so easily. Gratefully, after a while we did found a few to photograph lower down. This form is much larger than the classic Augrabies stephanii and most clones have deep red flowers.

Andy in action photographing C.stephanii.
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So that was it. We'd achieved our goal and felt extremely satisfied. We found suitably comfortable rocks to sit on and took a few minutes break for lunch. It was obvious now why Florent had spent the night up here as it would be the only way to reach the peak and then return the next day. We were really nowhere near the top of the mountain at this time but it was now 1pm, so five hours since we left camp. If we wanted to get back before dark we had to set off now. We chose a different route down – I like to take a watercourse if I can find one as the torrent of water over the millennia has usually created a relatively clear way down. One drawback can sometimes be that large dry waterfalls are too high & steep to climb down but there's always a way around them.

So four hours later, tired, dirty, over-heated, hungry & thirsty (Andy had long since finished his water and I only had a mouthful left) we got back down some way to the west from where we'd set off from. We still had what seemed like a long, hot walk in full late afternoon sun to get back to the camp site. But the thought of our fridge holding cold drinks, fruit & chocolate spurred us on and we finally got back after 5pm.

Was it worth it? Well I'm obviously glad I've done it, but mostly due to bad luck with the heat, it was the hardest mountain I've ever looked at for Conophytums and I wouldn't choose to do it again.

All three of these Conophytums have been in cultivation for years:

C.angelicae ssp.tetragonum SH.1327 under the Mesa Garden #1410.657
C.taylorianum ssp.rosynense EVJ.5518
C.stephanii PVB.3265

Any questions, please ask. Comments welcome.

And I'll mention again I just uploaded 133 new pictures to my website photo gallery if you want to see more. Link below then click on 'new images'.
Chris Rodgerson- Sheffield UK BCSS 27098

See www.conophytum.com for ca.4000 photos and growing info on Conophytum, Crassula & Adromischus.
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Diane
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by Diane »

What intrepid cono hunters you all are, Chris! I'm full of admiration of you, and thank you so much for your account of your explorations in the name of Conophytum!
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by Liz M »

Well done Chris and a very satisfying and interesting post. I am so glad you achieved what you set out to do.
In view of the heat problem had you not thought of setting out earlier in the morning? A 6am start would mean you missed a lot of heat. It's no fun being out in the sun after 1pm, so an early start is not such a bad option. I've done a few early starts and have been grateful to avoid the heat, even though it can be surprisingly cold early on.
Obsessive Crassulaceae lover, especially Aeoniums but also grow, Aloes, Agaves, Haworthias and a select number of Cacti.
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by ChrisR »

6am..... :eek: .....I don't normally get up 'till 9 Liz....... :grin: .....it would have been better of course, but it didn't get light until after 7 at that time of year and it's hard enough walking over that terrain in daylight. Especially with big black cobras lurking..... :shock:
Chris Rodgerson- Sheffield UK BCSS 27098

See www.conophytum.com for ca.4000 photos and growing info on Conophytum, Crassula & Adromischus.
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by Tony R »

Another fantastic account and photographs of a memorable day. Thanks for this, Chris.
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by AllanA »

Brilliant writing Chris, almost felt I was with you on that mountain. Too hot and ardouos for me though. Great photos also.
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by BrianMc »

All the above :wink: (tu)
Especially interested in Mesembs. small Aloes and South African miniatures and bulbs.
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by Apicra »

Great report, Chris. Can't find a smilie for jealous!

You know I have long wanted to get to the Rosyntjieberg, but have serious doubts about whether my 60-year old body would get me up there now. Several other endemic succulents grow on that cool quartzite.

As EvJ has taught me, walking through the veld at night (with head torches) is not a big deal, in fact straightforward on a moon-lit night and PMR radios give reassurance. But mid-winter (July) is the best time to visit to avoid some of the heat (although you get even less daylight).

Best wishes,
Derek Tribble,
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Re: On Another Day - Conophytum hunting in South Africa.

Post by FlorentG »

Wonderful exploration, Chris !

Actually I spent 2 nights up there in the mountains with my father. We walked almost half of the whole ridge (~12km) as our goal was to get to Oemsberg. But we didn't. So we went back in 2011, but that time took the track from Kuboes. We also walked for 3 days with our backpacks, self-sufficient, to reach Oemsberg. It is a real challenge to go hike in those dry and hot mountains !

Oemsberg is a bit dissapointing compared to Rosyntjiesberg. I guess the geology is different. The vegetation too. We only found 3 different Conos there : bilobum on conglomerates, jucundum ssp rushii (GIANT) and a TINY form of C. pagae (or was it kubusense ?).

Florent
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