Once again the sleuths visited the Christoffel park. This time with a special guest, Gisette Seferina, an entomologist. She brought some equipment to collect insects during this hike. Also Eddy was present after his long vacation.
We had no specific purpose this time, just a nice hike through the beautiful nature of the Christoffel park.
We gathered at 8 AM on Thursday October 8, 2014 at the parking lot of the Christoffel park. From the entrance of the park we drove with two cars to the small parking lot close to Pos Monton. From there we walked to Pos Monton, a nice well; we were very quiet during the last few meters to the pos because we hoped to see some deer drinking from the well. Unfortunately there were none. There were some water birds though and some of the water lilies were open already. This well has water all year round.
After taking the time to take some pictures we continued to the triple indigo tank system that we discovered here not too long ago. These indigo tanks are constructed from the Knip formation rocks that are common in this area of the island and that makes the look of these indigo tanks quite different from the others on the island. These Knip formation rocks have a nice layered structure. Fred noticed from the remains of the third system at this location that this tank seems to be built in the reverse direction of the other two systems. Most probably because of the structure of the underlying terrain. The largest tank needs to be at the highest level so the slope of the terrain has certainly an influence on the direction of the tanks.
From the indigo tanks we hiked to the North through a large roi. Most of this roi was not overgrown by plants so we had a rather easy hike. At some places we were able to walk next to each other so broad was it. There were several dams in the roi that were not marked on the Werbata map. So apparently these dams are from a later date than 1906. The strange thing with some of these dams was that we noticed a form of stalactites on the opposite side of the dam. Apparently the water trickled down at some time and contained enough calcium to make a deposit while flowing over the dam.
From a certain point the roi runs parallel to the main road to Westpunt on the inside of the gate. There are some culverts to carry the water under the road to the other side.
We continued in the roi till the large stone dam that is marked on the Werbata map. Apparently this dam has been reconstructed or enforced because it carries a date in the head of the dam: 7-12-66, December 7, 1966. This dam is breached and the roi in front of this dam is very deep; apparently the water flowed with quite some force through this roi.
We had a choice to make at this point. Either trying to cross the road to the other side of the park and then walk to the entrance to take one of the parked cars to pick up the other cars at Pos Monton, or hike back to the cars at Pos Monton. We decided to do the latter. The vegetation was denser here than in the other roi but we managed to reach the park road in a reasonable time. There some of the sleuths took a rest while Carel, Fred and I walked over the road to the cars.
In blue our track around the Seroe Hoba
Flowers of the Lantana, yellow and orange
Basora Kora's flowers
Waterlilies in Pos Monton
Some of the flowers are already open at 9 AM
The recently discovered indigo tank systems
Inside shows part of the original IJssel brick layer with watertight plaster
The first of the many dams that we encountered in the roi
Kind of stalactite forming on the outside of the dam
Nice Manzaliña tree next to the roi
This dam has a lower middle part to let the water flow over the dam
Freightened small hermit crab on my hand
Flower of the Brasia
Nice broad roi 
Fungus on a tree
Two Drymaeus snails next to each other
Carel is once again preparing coconut for us
Insects on the underside of a leaf
The sleuths are gathering next to a large boulder
Gisette tries to catch some mosquito's from Fred for further study
This Warawara was not very shy
A large stone dam
A breach in the stone dam
The deep roi that we followed back to the cars
Nice dead tree
A fungus on dead leaves
Small snail looking for another spot to rest
The beautiful flowers of the Tamarind tree
A strange looking plant (Helecteris carthaginensis)
This is the flower of this plant (Helecteris carthaginensis)
