The Plan
“Let’s do the flowers again” – I can’t recall whether it was me or Gerda that raised the thought earlier this year, but the immediate answer was “Yes!”
Translated, that means we were both keen to “do” the famed Spring flowers that bloom during August and September in parts of South Africa, in particular the West Coast and Namaqualand areas of our country.
With that decision made, we set about planning and booking a 14-night trip for the last two weeks of August, which would take us to some of the prime flower spots of the West Coast and Namaqualand during what we hoped would be the peak of the flower season
There are many aspects of an extended road trip that appeal to Gerda and myself – chief among them is the freedom of not being bound to a rigid itinerary, but rather deciding day by day what we will be doing …. or not doing.
Having said that, my organised nature still demands a degree of planning that takes care of accommodation and ensures a relaxed trip with comfortable distances between stopovers.
The plan we came up with looked like this –
- 2 nights in Welbedacht Nature Reserve near Tulbagh – not part of a recognised flower route, but a convenient stopover before heading northwards to Namaqualand
- 3 nights in Nieuwoudtville, Northern Cape, with the prospect of visiting several interesting spots that we had missed during our only previous visit in 2013
- 3 nights in Clanwilliam with attractions such as the Cederberg and Biedouw Valley nearby, as well as Lambert’s Bay within an hour’s drive
- 3 nights in Darling, not part of our previous itineraries, brimming with possibilities, and finally..
- 3 nights in Paternoster on the coast, a place that we have got to know from a couple of previous visits and not far from the West Coast National Park
Day 1 – Getting there
Final preparations for our departure started the day before – choosing the catering items we would need, packing most of our clothing requirements, sorting out the medical kit (essential at our age) and the paraphernalia that accompanies me on our road trips (cameras, binos, laptop, ipad) together with all the various batteries, cables and plugs to keep all of it working smoothly.
I was excited to try out my newest acquisition – an Iphone 17 – in the field as it were – more camera than phone, it has many of the features of my ‘fancy’ cameras, all packed into an unbelievably small package. I have made do for several years with a now outdated iphone SE – heck, even our Son-in-law said I deserved a better phone!
We left home at 10.30 am and travelled at our usual relaxed pace, which included stops at –
- Oumeul outside Riversdale for coffee and one of the nicest savoury muffins ever – they call it a Four-cheese muffin, I call it a delight. We bought two more to take away after eating the first one at an outside table.
- Nuy on the hill near Worcester for a late-ish lunch of Chicken mayo roosterkoek (a large bun baked over coals) – too much to complete so we doggy-bagged the rest for later in the evening
Traffic was light for most of the trip and there was time to check out the verges and fields which had small patches of colourful flowers.
I pulled off the road at a couple of places, between Swellendam and Ashton and again between Robertson and Worcester, when I thought the concentration of flowers deserved a closer look.
That proved to be a good tactic as there were several different flowers at each stop, even though the area is not regarded as part of a flower route.
My new phone proved to be up to the task of photographing the flowers from different angles and producing nice crisp images.
Welbedacht Nature Reserve
After passing through Tulbagh, it was a short drive to the nature reserve, which we reached at 5pm on the dot and followed the whatsapp instructions to access the reserve, find our key in a box at the main complex and follow the track to our cottage set amongst trees well away from the other cottages. The last few kms were through the reserve itself and we were pleased to see a few animals such as antelope and Zebra.
We found it unusual that there was no one to welcome us and provide information about the cottage and reserve, as we are used to – in fact we did not see or meet any staff during our two night stay and simply dropped the key off in the same box on the way out. However, that didn’t detract from the stay, and we enjoyed the peace and quiet along with no disturbances whatsoever.
The cottage is compact with bedroom, living area and kitchen forming one space and a separate bathroom. What makes it special is the feeling of solitude and peace in natural surroundings, featuring fynbos and fields of flowers.
Outside a small stoep looks out over the reserve and there is a small plunge pool adjacent to it, which I tried out later. (It’s heated so not as brave as it may sound)
Our evening meal was light – the rest of our roosterkoek with sides of sliced banana and tomato!
Birding highlights
My initial impression was that birdlife around the cottage was plentiful, with calls of Olive Thrush, Cape Grassbird, Bokmakierie and Blue Crane heard as the day ran out.
Evening brought the calls of the big three nighttime birds – Fiery-necked Nightjar, Spotted Thick-Knee and Spotted Eagle-Owl
Day 2 – Chilling in Welbedacht Nature Reserve
We awoke to a warm sunny day and decided to make it a ‘rest’ day and just stay at our cosy cottage all day. That was a good decision as we were feeling the effects of a particularly busy time of late.
After a late lie in and breakfast, I spent time on the stoep boosting my bird list, then scouted around the cottage for interesting flowers. I followed that with a short walk along the track leading to the other cottages.
There were plenty of flowers – and birds – to keep me occupied, the birds are typical of those I know so well from the Mossel Bay fynbos habitat, with Yellow and Cape Canaries and Streaky-headed Seedeaters visible and audible throughout the day.
Karoo Prinias were not far behind, and Cape Robin-Chats made regular visits to the patio in the hope of picking up crumbs from our breakfast rusks.
Flowers were colourful and varied, with two that were growing close to the cottage stimulating our curiosity, until Gerda matched the photos with illustrations in her wildflowers book and found that both were a type of wild Orchid.
It’s easy to overlook a flower when it is surrounded by undergrowth and in the shade, appearing quite nondescript ….
Get closer – on your knees if necessary – and the flower reveals its special beauty
We took a late afternoon drive to see what else the nature reserve had to offer and explored the tarred road beyond the reserve turn off to the foothills of the mountains. Fruit trees – dormant and pruned skeletons at this time of year – cover every available piece of arable land and seem to be managed by a couple of large estates.
Birding highlights
- Klaas’s Cuckoo calling in the morning
- Cape Batis briefly in the trees in front of the stoep
- Brimstone Canary visited during the day
- 34 added to the pentad list during the day, taking the total to 52 species
