Don's Diary

Saturday. Got back from holiday late last night. Threw daughter's washing in the machine before bed. Get her packed and off to camp before getting ready for our collecting trip to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Go into the department to look for any message from the Czech Republic or the import licence from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food. Complex message from MAFF that they are having problems with the licence. Originally we had been leaving for Prague on Sunday, but six weeks ago my wife cut two tendons in her hand, and she needed to see the doctors between holiday and trip. Glad for enforced delay.

Monday. Vicky off to the hospital while I ring the Czech Republic and MAFF. I had been unable to touch base with my contact in Prague, Josef Mesicek, before we went on holiday. I feel much better when I hear that he is expecting me tomorrow. MAFF is less easy. I need a licence for soil, but not for plants with a phytosanitary certificate. But these are wild plants: a phytosanitary certificate will not be possible. Um! The new regulations apparently did not foresee this scenario, and the type of licence I have used previously has been abolished. My contact will ring York to try to sort something out. At 12 noon he rings back. York will fax a permission to Prague and we will sort out the details after I return. My faith in the civil service is restored. Depart for Bristol, and thence to Prague, where the fax from MAFF is duly awaiting me. Much needed beer, then bed.

Tuesday. Arrive at the Botanical Institute at 9am. Look at herbarium sheets, with Josef explaining his interpretation of the genus Cardaminopsis. He recognises one tetraploid and six diploid species that occur within the Czech Republic or Slovakia, of which one (C. petraea) is very rare, and probably doomed to local extinction. Pity - I particularly want this one. We set out to look at some classic sites near Prague. The first is a rocky outcrop in a suburb, with a rather dilapidated notice advertising a nature reserve, and we set off up a muddy path. Within 20 yards we have found a large and thriving population of C. petraea. Josef is very excited - he now reveals that he had not found any here 20 years ago! Drive across Prague to another site, stopping for lunch on the way. This site also produces C. petraea in abundance, and in addition the tetraploid, C. arenosa. Only Day 1, and we have already got two of the species I want. On a roll, we drive 30 kilometres south to a pretty river bank. But an hour's searching in the fading light fails to find a third species we have come to find.

Wednesday. On the road by 8am, we drive 80 kilometres north to another putative C. petraea site. The flat Bohemian plain is punctuated by a number of almost perfectly hemispherical granite hills. Rain starts. Again C. petraea is where it is supposed to be. Back to the institute for a further briefing on possible localities for all the diploids, and then off to Bratislava, arriving at 8pm.

Thursday. 8.30am, arrive at the Slovak Botanical Institute to pick up the permit to collect plants in the Tatra Mountains. Two sites to visit before we get to the mountains. The first is a cliff with a ruined castle perched on the top. This is popular with the tourists, and we look very conspicuous collecting seed from abundant plants.

Friday. Josef has given us a few localities close to the road, but the main list of sites I have for the principal species to be collected here, C. neglecta, are all in the high mountains. Duly find another diploid species, C. nitida on near-road site. Up a funicular railway to a ski station, where Josef has suggested we might find C. neglecta relatively painlessly. No such luck! Walk down the mountain, drive ten kilometres up the road, and walk five miles up a valley in which the species is supposed to occur. If it does, it avoids us carefully. Back to the hotel, weary and footsore.

Saturday. Long circular route, starting at the ski station, takes in five known neglecta sites. Surely it must occur at one? By the time we get to the top of the funicular it is raining hard. Sign says two hours 45 minutes to the chalet which is our first location. First three miles are fine but the last mile is very steep, and we arrive at the chalet very wet, cold and leg weary. Temperature 6 degrees C. Neglecta again eludes us.

Sunday. One last attempt to find neglecta. This time we will go up the valley we should have descended yesterday. Another 700 metre climb brings us to a chalet for a reviving beer in the sunshine. Continue half way up the precipice and there it is! Very mixed looks from the many other walkers as I collect plants and seed - I am glad I have my permission! Back to Brno for the night.

Monday. An amble round Brno, ending up at the monastery and Mendel's statue. Where did he grow his peas, I wonder?

Tuesday. We have collected five of the six diploid species on this trip. Day's sightseeing in Prague as a reward.

Wednesday. Arrive at Bristol and approach the Red channel to declare my plants and use my import licence. Why did I bother? There are no customs officers on duty, and I have to ring Cardiff and explain. I could have saved myself Pounds 300 and a lot of hassle!

Mark Macnair Reader in evolutionary genetics at Exeter University.