Mrs Van Wyk of Boereplaas outside Nieuwoudtville offered Chris two kinds of accommodation over the phone when he booked our trip to the daisy fields of Namaqualand last season.

There was a little flatlet next to the farmhouse with full electricity and an electric blanket.

Or there was a little cottage. Its toilet and shower facilities were a short walk away, she explained. And there was no electricity.

“But it’s right in the middle of the flowers.”

And that sold it for us…

There’s a new member of the Karoo Space family in Cradock. He’s some wolf, some bear and a whole lot of Long Haired German Shepherd. Some say his line is as close to the traditional European wolf as you can get. TwoPack is his name. The back of the bakkie is going to be his domain. This is his story so far - as told by JULIENNE DU TOIT

September 2007: BUSHMANLAND - It was a milky early morning dawn, icy. We were leaving Pella, a date oasis in Bushmanland. By nightfall, we had to be in De Aar. But first a photo session with the quiver tree forest we’d stumbled upon.

There was no sound except the sighing of the wind through the grasses. I found myself and my camera a huge, kindly, venerable father of quiver tree (Aloe dichotoma), and fell among his upheld arms. So it felt, anyway. I felt that we told one another secrets. I asked him where his best side was and he showed me.

The doorbell chimes late one afternoon. Through the security gate I see a complete stranger who launches straight into his sales schpiel.

“Lovely fresh fish, madam, straight from the West Coast. Fresh Kabeljou and clean tiger prawns, ready for the braai. I’ve got Geelbek, Kingklip and White Steenbras. Also seafood mix, mussel meat, filleted stockfish, Angelfish, Norwegian salmon…”

I stop him in mid-flow. The West Coast? Here in Cradock?

“From Saldanha, madam. I’m here with a refrigerated truck, good prices.”

February 21, 2008: Cradock - You can see Cape ground squirrels in the drylands of the Karoo and Kalahari, right up through Botswana and Namibia.

Unlike the solitary tree-squirrels of Europe, these are sociable little beasties. They live in colonies, burrow into the earth to make their homes, and have a complete absence of stick-up ears.

During the heat of a desert day, when almost every other creature is dozing in the shade or in an underground burrow, ground squirrels are out, fluffy tails shading them like parasols.

They’re mostly herbivorous, eating seeds, flowers and the odd termite.

There’s one living right next door to us here in Cradock.

January 1, 2008: Cradock - What do travel writers do over Christmas? They hand the baton to the holidaymakers, stock up with booze and cheap paperbacks and put their feet up at home.