kokerboom

Sorting through my archive has led me back to the good ol' days of film... A few years ago I went on a three day flower photo trip up the West Coast with my friend Fran, and we ended up at the quiver tree forest near Niewoudville late one night, where we promptly went about setting up our cameras in the dark. I shot this one on my lovely Pentax MZ5n (at a mere 410g it was half the weight of my Brikon, making it a shutter-happy hiker's delight - sadly it has since been pinched).


Facing due west, stars streak through the sky behind a mature quiver tree.

The quiver tree (or kokerboom in Afrikaans) is so called because the hollow branches were used by the bushmen to make quivers for their arrows. They are fascinating and beautiful trees, with the most wonderfully textured bark. If you're interested, more details about the trees can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A26151482. Along with so many other species, the trees are under threat from global warming - read more about the report at www.bgci.org/conservation/Aloe_dichotoma. The quiver trees flower around this time of the year, so if you happen to be in the area, you might want to pay a visit to the forest - details and directions from www.nieuwoudtville.co.za/information31.html.