Ecklon and Zeyher left Cape Town in October 1831 on a collecting trip to the eastern borders of the Cape Colony. Passing through
Caledon they went down to
Cape Agulhas and back to
Swellendam, where they once again came across Drege on 5 November 1831. Crossing the
Langeberg into the
Karoo, they collected extensively along the Gourits River and the
Swartberg. Turning south again they crossed the
Outeniqua Mountains, visiting
George and
Knysna, before following the
Langkloof to Uitenhage and
Algoa Bay, from where they shipped their collection back to Cape Town. Travelling further north through the
Albany and
Somerset East districts, then east over the
Fish, Koonap and
Kat Rivers, and again north over the Winterberg, they came to
Tamboekieland in the area of the present
Queenstown. From here they followed the
Kei River to its source in the Stormberg. By this time their collections had grown so large that Ecklon was detailed to leave for Europe in 1832 to dispose of the specimens. Zeyher remained in Tamboekieland since Drege notes that he met him at Shiloh Mission south of Queenstown on 29 November 1832. Zeyher then returned to Uitenhage where he found employment in the service of Joachim Brehm, an apothecary and collector who had created one of the finest gardens in the Eastern Cape. At this time Ecklon was in Hamburg seeing to the publication of their joint paper
Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis which appeared in three parts between 1834 and 1837. With Ecklon he issued the
exsiccata Plantae Africae australis extratropicae. Apparently Ecklon's visit to Hamburg was cut short by a warehouse fire that destroyed the greater part of their collections. Financially Ecklon was crippled and sold his personal set of specimens to Sonder before returning to the Cape in late 1837 or early 1838. He lived for another 30 years, but his mental and physical strength had been broken by the setbacks and he ceased collecting. Zeyher had in turn become dispirited by events, and had struck out on his own before Ecklon's return. He went back to the Uitenhage area and forwarded his new collections to WJ Hooker and
N. B. Ward of London. While in Uitenhage, Zeyher had put together an extensive collection of indigenous wood samples together with flowering and fruiting herbarium specimens. These were destined for the Berlin Museum and a favourable price had been agreed upon. Misfortune continued to haunt Zeyher, however, and the ship carrying this precious collection was lost at sea. ==Expedition to the South African plateau with Joseph Burke 1840-1842==