Tonight G remembered to dig out an old VCR taping of a PBS Nature program on Namaqualand. It was so wild. We had taped a couple of different programs on the VCR tape. It started with this program about Ted Bundy staring Mark Harmon called The Deliberate Stranger. We moved to the Seattle area during those times in the mid-70’s. Everyone looked so strange in the program. We hadn’t fully realized how old this tape was. The comercials really showed their age. There were shampoo commercials for Halsa shampoo and Caress soap. The women’s hair style gave us a clue to when we had recorded the TV program. What was really surprising was the news clip came on for the Chernobyl fall out. There was a map that showed the potential fallout for the explosion. A little googling gave us a timeframe; 1986!

The Nature program had been prodcast on PBS in 1986 but documented by BBC in 1985. There was a record bloom in Namaqaaland in 1983. It was so cool to see the area and the potential wildflowers that we might see in two week.

Twenty years? That is how long our dream has been alive. We have been intrigued by the area and always thought it would be so great to visit. And now, here in 2005, we are visiting.

G knew the botanical names of all the daisies and succulents. I don’t know how he does it. I’m sitting there looking at the flower on the TV and he says it is yadda yad. ‘How do you know that?’

Two weeks. I am so excited.