Day 51 - Cacti or Cactuses, You Decide!

Another glorious day in paradise. Sat, wrote my blog & did a bit of twitching in the shade under the trees. Charlie had put a trap out in the cactus field to try & catch the animal digging holes next to his cactus. I had a look but it was still empty.

After breakfast, we did the square root of f*** all on a lilo in the pool. By midday the temperature had hit the mid 90s. At lunch, an ice cream & apple turnover, I checked the trap & saw that a ground squirrel had been caught. I decided to leave it for Charlie to liberate when he got home from work, apparently he drives a couple of miles down the road & lets them go.

I then conducted a field study of the different species of Cacti or Cactuses (both are used) in his garden & grounds. I have identified a few small Saguaro Cacti, Jumping Cholla, Golden Barrel Cacti, Prickly Pears, Buckthorn Cholla, Agave & Totem Pole Cacti.

During the afternoon, the temperature increased to 104 degrees & we could feel the sun burning our shoulders. At 4.00pm we called it a day in the sun. Whilst Jackie was showering, I checked on ground squirrel 🐿, only to find him dead. Poor little bugger!

After getting ready we drove to Fry’s, the local supermarket. It seemed cheap, but after using the self checkout, we were shocked at how much we had spent on effectively booze & suncream. Apparently you needed a loyalty card to get the discounts.

We dropped the shopping back at 4400, N Ave Del Cazador, then set off for Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains to hopefully witness a fantastic sunset. It was a one hour drive to the top, about 37 miles. Just before we started climbing, we saw our 2nd Coyote of the trip. It was a mangy looking bitch that nearly managed to evade my camera, again.

The lower section of the Santa Catalina Mountains was riddled with the wonderful looking Saguaro Cacti, but we continued upward on the Catalina Highway toward the over 9,000 ft summit. At the top was Mount Lemmon ski resort which was pretty much closed for the summer & had no view of the sunset because it was in a small valley.

We drove back down the way we had come, occasionally stopping for a photo until we reached Windy Point Vista. We parked up & scrambled over the rocks to find a suitable spot to sit to watch the sunset with the dozens of others, mainly college aged kids, plus a young couple all dressed up for wedding or prom photos.

Windy Point Vista has a great outlook over the Santa Catalina Mountains & Tucson below, but as the name suggests it is blowy. At just under 7000 ft, it is also a lot cooler, which felt damn cold in just our flimsy tops. Someone told us sunset would be in about 20 minutes so we huddled together & waited patiently. Sadly it was a bit of a flop.

We drove back down the mountain arriving home at around 8.30pm for chicken wings & beer.

Song of the Day - Cactus by David Bowie.

Bonus Song of the Day :-

Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset by Luke BryanRead more