Gone swimmin'
In fact, here is the scene from Randy's perspective. (Thanks for the photograph, Randy!)
But then, the quiet was interrupted by a tremendous, aquatic
ker-PLUUUUUSSSHHHH sound from some distance off, at a spot hidden by the shrubs and reeds. That's where Beth was last
seen.
"Well, that doesn't sound good", I told Randy. I figured
that Beth probably had executed an unscheduled water-entry. In other words, she slipped and fell in the pond. But
instead of rushing to her aid, I continued to photograph the plant in front of me.
Randy might have been surprised at my inaction, but as I did not hear continued thrashing sounds, I figured
that in the short term, Beth could take care of herself better than I could. My crashing to her side would
do little of service.
Of course, Beth was fine, although significantly muckied. But what about her camera gear?
My very-sweet 90 mm macro which
she had been using was fortunately
unharmed. But she did manage to briefly dunk her digital SLR camera body into the water, and it was now malfunctioning
badly. We popped out the batteries, blew water out of the controls, and hoped for the best. Water had not flooded the
CCD chamber, but we could not assess the extent of the damage.
I was confident the camera would be alright in the long run. (I was wrong.)
We regrouped for lunch, and then headed to our next site. It was tough to leave, though, as the list of
carnivorous plants we had seen at this one site included:
Sarracenia rubra subsp. gulfensis
P. primuliflora
D. capillaris
U. floridana
U. olivacea
U. purpurea
U. striata
U. subulata
No doubt we would have found more, had we looked harder.
