Chapel Hill is a nice city. A bit hippy but in a good way. The Uni is massive and fills a great proportion of the city. It has a stiffening influence on the local Southern pace and I here a lot of accents from Europe and the northern States. After a while I notice something else as well. People are not as friendly. I stop in the Carolina Brewing Company for an iced coffee. The brewing vats fill the space behind the bar and men work at stirring the wurst and boiling the mash behind the barmaids. The sample of wheat beer I was given was excellent and I loved the way the staff could talk in great depth about their products. I resolve to return at a time more conductive to consuming larger amounts.

Onto the botanical garden. There are a great many old trees in this city. None are cloaked in the Spanish Moss that you see in South Georgia and Florida, but I am struck by the incidence of disease, mostly fungal. Still most of the trees seem to cope well with it. I see a number of massive Lirodendrons with their familiar "cut" leaf that are succumbing to the rot and there are some Acacias that will not see another decade, but the oaks treat the fungus with disdain. I see red, white and willow oaks - all as large as the English oak I am so familiar with at home. There are some Hawthorns that look nothing like the fairy thorns at home and a number of hollies that I know not. I am glad I came, not least for the shade as the heat is already in the high 90's and it is not yet 1100. Little grey squirrels run around the grounds and up and down trees quite oblivious to the human traffic that darts around the place. They are smaller that the greys we see in the UK and a different colour of grey too, almost greenish. There are small birds that look like miniature pheasants, chipmunks and little sparrow like birds abound.

The afternoon is set aside for shopping. I catch a bus to the mall. The hotel staff are helpful, but incredulous that I prefer the bus to a cab, or a personal driver, especially as I will have to walk approximately 0.2 miles form the bus stop to the first shop. As I walk in the sky clouds over, there is a rumble of thunder and the first rain I have seen in many days falls in great waves.

Two hours later and I have had my fill of shopping. I step out into an atmosphere that resembles a sauna. The sun is out and steam fills the air. Within 10 minutes the road is dry but water saturates the atmosphere. Everyone looks as if they were out in the rain. Sweat pours from every pore. I am glad when the bus rolls up.

I go to eat and remember I have had no lunch. The heat numbs the sense of hunger. I set reminders for myself for tomorrow and reflect on how sub - normal this makes me appear. I wipe the reminders - I must still have some reservoir of pride left, buried deep. I make a mental note to find and drain it.

Tomorrow I head back to Raleigh.