If you are not interested in palm trees, look away now...

Whereas you don't find much holly in Hollywood, you certainly see a lot of palm trees in Palm Springs! The only native palm tree here is the Californian fan palm (all the others have been brought here from Africa). What is interesting (well I think so!) about this palm tree is that the fronds don't fall off the trunk when they die, but droop down to form a skirt. Here they are, neatly trimmed just above the knees and looking very elegant as they line the main street of Palm Springs.

But this is what they look like in their natural, ungroomed state. Several miles down the valley from Palm Springs is the Thousand Palm Oasis where these amazing trees cluster around a natural source of water. The skirts are full of birds and other wildlife and the atmosphere is like the primeval jungle. The water source is caused by the San Andreas Fault which runs under this oasis - not the best place to be if there's an earthquake!

I stand on the San Andreas Fault and...not a judder, not a whisper of a tremble. However, I would not like to be here when "The Big One" hits as predicted. Maybe that was why I was the only person here...It was quite off the beaten track and the weather was threatening. There weren't any wardens around. In fact it was quite a scary place, but fascinating...













On the Thousand Palms Canyon road. If it started to rain I was going to turn round and get out of there quickly because there was lots of evidence of flooding from the day before. Fortunately the rain passed over and I didn't get trapped by a flash flood...