Inauspicious start to the second trip to the Karoo: rendered immobile thirty five kilometres from destination by two simultaneous flat tyres on deserted dirt road, with no cell phone signal, an hour before sunset. Rescued by team from camp arriving on the scene 10 o’clock at night with big truck, spades, jacks and tools to remove wheels for repair next morning back at base. Nine hours to complete what normally is a four and a half hour journey, and doing so with car left overnight in the middle of nowhere – all part of the job. Returning to a now familiar spot where we had been three weeks before on the previous trip to the Karoo, Strijdom used the shallow layer of small dark stones on light sandy earth in which to draw a series of intersecting lines. Large patches of tiny yellow flowers that had not been there three weeks earlier now extended in all directions – small friendly presences in this harsh landscape, signalling the shifting of the seasons.