The Whimsical Adventures Fantastical

Giggle Plant

Dear Explorer

Re: Giggle Plant

I stumbled across Giggle Plants while trooping through the forests of southern Peru. We had come to the country after the idea had been suggested by a close friend who had recently made the journey. His name is Mr Rikus Blomerus - a brilliant botanist (with a deep interest in the genomics of domestication). He is, however, a rather peculiar fellow.

We had arranged to meet for tea a few weeks prior to my departure. He had requested to meet with me to tell me of his journey; as there had been some very exciting sightings. I obliged, intrigued by these sightings, and because I was very keen to see a dear old friend. We have known each other for a very long time, you see. In fact, we studied together in Cape Town, South Africa.

His house is found at the bottom of Table Mountain, deep in the forest that scales it's slopes. An old Colonial building, remnant of the early Dutch settlers, painted white with large windows. A verandah runs around the entire outside of the house, and this is where he spends his afternoons - comfortable on his rocking chair; smoking his pipe and looking out into the dense thickets that surround him. He has a mop of unruly brown hair, spectacles and a goatee that runs down his length to his belt. Dressed, more often than not, in old blue suits that he finds in antique auctions. Spending an extended period of time with him, you are likely to notice his peculiar habit of checking his pocket watch every 5 minutes. "Why?" you might ask (and this would be a good question). To which he would reply "very observant of you!". The reason is his utter obsession with the game of cricket. This pocket watch cannot tell the time. Instead, it has many hands, all of which are used to show the different indices that are used to interpret the score of a particular cricket game. The "watch" is connected to live sports feeds on the internet, and then interprets them appropriately. It was designed by RIkus Blomerus in order to combine his two favourite hobbies: cricket and tinkering with old clocks.

Rikus Blomerus' tea is always incredible, but what else can you expect from a botanist whose dissertation was "Camellia sinensis (the tea plant), the effect of altitude adjustment on flavour, and techniques of recreating altitude in sea level greenhouses"? It was humid afternoon, and heady aromas of the tea and the forrest mixed in the air. Bird song. The chatter of thousands and millions of insects. Brunt of African sun beating down. Time passed quickly, as we were caught up talking about old university days. 

It was dusk before he told me about his Pervuvian excursion. He had travelled there because of the abdudance of plant life, and his particular interest in the Orchidaceae family of plants. The journey had taken him deep into the jungle. His focus had not been on the local animals, but one day, when he was looking for Vanilla (part of the orchid family) he claimed he had a glimpse of a Paddywaggle! Can you believe it! I daresay it might have been an owl, considering the rarity of the Paddywaggle, but it is Rikus Blomerus after all (whom I deeply trust) and it was near Vanilla orchids, the staple diet of Paddywaggles. The probabilities and odds were seemingly in my favour. I could not let this opportunity pass me by. During his travels he had also managed to buy a few moonstones of lower quality. I was in desperate need of moonstones (an essential part in the lens system in my microscope). I was thus convinced and started making for the provisions for the trip immediately. I left three weeks after my meeting.

The expedition had been a long and arduous one. The southern Peruvian jungle is thick. The vines cling to your body. Roots lay in knarled heaps on the floor. The air is humid and heavy. Steady feet and machetes are required to make headway through the bush. I hired some local boys to carry the luggage, a few trackers who knew the jungle well, and a guide who would be my translator. The plan was to reach the point of the sighting (as shown by Rikus Blomerus) and then circle around that area in the hope of seeing a Paddywaggle. It would take twelve days to reach the sighting point. From there we would spend about two weeks looking for signs of the Paddywaggle, and thereafter return. The expected length of the expedition would be about thirty eight days.