#Saffrons usually very brave but they just couldn't help but see the plant as danger

[pokemon-ecologist]

WELL! I'm back from the Lumiose Badlands... the dry environment was surprisingly sandy for a place that's supposed to be more clay or rocky desert than dunes, sandstorms kicked up by Pokémon were much more common than I've seen in other government managed routes through arid landscapes. Although the extra sand seems to have been built up around rocks that eroded very fast, likely helped along by ground types that prefer a deeper substrate to burrow! I'm specifically thinking of the Dugtrio that find home there, while they can easily burrow through high clay content groundrock, they seem to be happy to make life easier by grinding out a level of sand in certain areas.

I honestly expected the Pokémon to be more along the lines of Spike Mountain, and honestly I'd expect the ecological spheres of the two routes to be swapped typically. But the Pokémon seem determined to make their niche work, as they always do!

I'd hoped to break a few rocks that slid down from the cliffs to see if I could find a Slugma. I know they're supposed to be around the area, and I wanted to see if the ones native to Kalos had adopted any specific strategies to make themselves comfortable in the Badlands. Unfortunately, Saffron is the Pokémon I have to do that, and they really didn't like being so close to the powerplant, bad memories from their past, and I didn't want to push them to stick around too long.

Maybe next time! For now, we're spending the night in Lumiose and then catching a flight from the city airport all the way to Sinnoh! The Pokémon don't like spending that long in their Pokeballs, but they like seeing new places and Sinnoh is the only place I haven't done environment studies in before, so we'll be sticking around for a good while. I've enjoyed the vacation, but honestly I feel like getting back to work will be more restful than the tourism has...