Cactus and Succulent Labyrinth - Graaff Reinet, South Africa

I was fortunate enough to recently have passed through the town of Graaff Reinet for the first time in decades. I have history here as my uncle had a farm outside of the town and also a house in town. As kids, we spent most of our time on the farm during holidays.

As an ex-psychonaut, I had to visit the cactus and succulent nursery which apparently housed an astounding number of mescaline-containing cacti. Probably the the biggest outside of the Americas. The plants are not illegal here, but it's illegal to extract or create a concentrate as mescaline itself is as controlled as cocaine and heroin. I also just really like cacti in general.

I was looking to buy some ornamental peyote and there they were, desert hardened babies at less than $2 each. I could only manage 4 which was tragic as there were thousands!

The owner suggested I take a walk in his labyrinth and have a careful look at the ground between towering San Pedro and Peruvian Torch clusters and a gobsmacking collection of the most stunning cacti and succulents. Clusters of weathered, brown peyotes, untended and completely adapted to the Great Karoo Desert lay level with the soil, hardly visible.

When it rains, they puff up and become green. The babies I bought from him were also completely neglected, bar a rough shade cloth overhead. After watering them, they transformed into little green pumpkins.

The pics are from a mobile phone camera and I'm no photographer, but here are some snaps, none which can do justice to the size and diversity of the nursery and its thorny maze.

Even on my walk to the nursery, I'd find San Pedro's growing on the sidewalks and in people's gardens

Not as conveniently packaged as, say, LSD

More than 7 000 species represented and stocked

https://www.sa-venues.com/attractionsec/obesa-cacti-nursery.htm