After
yesterday's hard walk, today promised to be a sort of rest day with four
stops scheduled along the road, easily reached by car. Of course, those
that were keen could always explore the hills sides and between us, the
group covered a huge area between the car and where ever it was that Leo
managed to get to. The first stop (S057),
was north of Taltal and had a population of mainly C. cinerea fa.
albispina growing some 26 m above sea-level along the coast. Again a
wide degree of variation could be observed.
On the
way back to the cars, close to the road, we came across some 50 clumps of
up-rooted Copiapoa that appear to be awaiting a visit by a
commercial collector. Disgusted by the sight, Rudolf threatened to stand
guard to save the plants, but was eventually coaxed back to the cabanas
(food, wine, a shower). Later we met a lady, armed with clip-board who
seemed to be studying plants too. It transpired that she was marking
plants to be dug up so that they could escape the bulldozers that were
busy improving the still unpaved sections of the coast road. Once the
work was completed, these clumps will be replanted.
Our
next stop (S058) was
south of Taltal, at a population of typical C. cinerea, with
predominantly single spined plants, and again a bit further along (S059)
where there was a selection of cristate plants to tempt our shutter
finger. After all, how many pictures of straight forward C. cinerea
do you need?☺
We
finished the day by taking a look at the state of the track up the Cerro
Perales, inland from Taltal (S060)
as we planned to drive to the top on 29 May.
