The day was scorchingly hot under the bowl of a cloudless pale blue sky, and there was no breeze. The still air carried the chirping and clicking and buzzing of a myriad of unseen insects as well as the distant sound of the sea receding behind them as they walked. Everything that met the eye was bleached pale yellow or tawny brown. They picked their way across a barren landscape where thin plates of loose rock clattered and shifted awkwardly beneath their feet. Twice they disturbed flocks of small dun-coloured birds that looked like sparrows. Otherwise the place was a wilderness. Low thorny bushes tore at their clothes and strange bulbous plants sprouted from the stony soil. Each was the size of a man’s head and armed with fearsome arrays of three-inch-long spikes. The plant had a fluffy topknot and inside was a small pink fruit which tasted and smelled like wild strawberry. But collecting the fruit was hazardous. The ground was littered with the fallen spikes, sharper than any needle.
