The Plan (Repeat from Part 1)

“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

The plan we came up with looked like this –

• 2 nights in Welbedacht Nature Reserve near Tulbagh (Covered in Part 1) – not part of a recognised flower route, but a convenient stopover before heading northwards to Namaqualand
• 3 nights in Nieuwoudtville, Northern Cape (Covered in this Part 2), 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 5 – Nieuwoudtville: Botanical wonders, Glaciers and Farms

Our second day in Nieuwoudtville was again fine and warm, encouraging us to get out a tad earlier. Still with Linda’s recommendations in mind, we left before 11am and headed through town then south along the road to

Hantam Botanical Gardens

Our first stop was a ‘should we bother?’ one – the botanical gardens were not on the list of recommended stops as the flowers were “over” according to several sources. However we were glad we turned off at the Botanical gardens signboard and headed to the parking for a short visit, pausing along the entrance road to admire the interesting flowers on the embankment.

After parking, we took in the display of local plant species in the small hall, then took a walk to the nearby field of blooms, which we were told were the last remaining in the gardens (actually more like a farm with no formal gardens as such)

Glacial Pavement

Moving on, we made a short stop to have a look at the Glacial Pavement – exposed rocks with striations indicating the track of a glacier some 300 million years ago! The striations are clearly visible but it’s hard to imagine a time so long ago when glacial conditions prevailed over Southern Africa.

Boereplaas

We were curious to see Boereplaas, a large farm with a flower route, which neighbours De Lande where we stayed 13 years go and woke to snowfalls on my birthday.

As we stopped under the trees at the farm, this scene caught my eye and I just had to capture it on my iphone

Boereplaas’s restaurant did not disappoint and we had a simple, delicious lunch of butternut soup and roosterkoek – also the only choice on the menu – then scouted round the small gift shop, coming away with oven gloves emblazoned with ‘Boereplaas’ and a couple of pecan nut tarts for ‘pudding’ later

Just by the way, the restaurant must be a contender for attracting the most bird species to a public building – no less than three species flew in and out of the small building while we sat down –

• House Sparrow (no surprise there),
• Pied Starling (who had a nest in the roof beams it seems) and
• Familiar Chat (maybe nesting or just plain curious).

After lunch we took a drive around the farm on a 7km circular track that took in some lovely views of the farm and surroundings and afforded views of many species of flowering plants, including the last remnants of the Rooi Katstertjies (Red Cat’s tails) that the farm is known for. Several stops and tens of photos later we were back where we had started.

This unusual plant caught our eye

Matjiesfontein

Our last stop of the day was a few kms further along the road at Matjiesfontein, another farm-based padstal and restaurant, also offering a flower route of some 13km.

The full 13km route sounded too much at this point as it was already approaching 4pm but the friendly young lady at reception suggested we could do a short section of the route in reverse, which would take us straight to where the most flowers were at this stage, about 2kms in.

So that is what we did, after dragging ourselves away from the chatty personnel, and found some beautiful spreads of flowers at the point she had mentioned.

We had to agree with other flower tourists that the flowers were not as spectacular as previous seasons, in terms of the hoped for massed displays that are such a feature of the flower regions.

But we found that the way to counter this was to get out wherever patches of flowers occurred and scout around for different individual species, often small and hidden by the more prominent flowers.

It proved to be hard work, but paid off handsomely when we found unusual species and took copious photos to admire and identify once we got back to our base at the end of the day.

While the majority of other flower tourists were inclined to complain and be disappointed, we could hardly contain our excitement about what we had found.

After that, we headed home on the corrugated road, a bit faster than I would normally drive, to ‘smooth out’ the worst of the irritating corrugations.

Our evening meal was that prepared by the guesthouse staff, taken at a communal table with a few other guests who provided pleasant conversation.

Birding highlights :

• Ant-eating Chat on the way to the Botanical gardens
• Black-winged Kite just outside the town

• Several Capped Wheatears – some doing their display flight and calls
• Jackal Buzzard over Boereplaas

• Sickle-winged Chat on the drive around Boereplaas
• Common Quail heard a few times and seen once while on the drive around Boereplaas

Day 6 – Nieuwoudtville to Clanwilliam

Time to move on again – however, with a short drive of 120km facing us, we had time to explore Nieuwoudtville before heading southwards.

After checking out after 10am we headed to the local NG Church Hall where they serve pancakes and tea or coffee during the flower season, in the hall which is filled with stalls offering all kinds of crafted goods.

Gerda bought a number of goodies as small presents for the family and we had pancakes and tea at an outside table, while many similar-minded people (of a similar age group) did the same thing.

We walked over to the old church – a classic example of a NG Church built in beautiful sandstone quarried just outside the town and completed in 1906 – very much an icon and dominating the skyline.

It was equally impressive inside and beautifully maintained with oak pews, wrought iron railings and a pristine white sandstone pulpit that has not discoloured over a period of more than 100 years.

From there we set off on our short trip to Clanwilliam and were soon into the descent of the spectacular Vanrhyn’s Pass and beyond across the Knersvlakte again, before reaching the N7 where we turned south towards Clanwilliam.

We were too early for check in so had a lunch of bacon and egg toasties at Velskoendraai Padstal on the outskirts of Clanwilliam before heading to the Ochre and Ash guesthouse nearby.

Once checked in we had a rest and later a simple in-room supper / snack of rice cookies, ham and cheese

Birding highlights

• Cape Canary and Fiscal Flycatcher added to my NC birdlasser list, both seen at the church
• Pale Chanting Goshawk and Rock Kestrel on the Knersvlakte road

• On arrival in Clanwilliam my new list got started at the Padstal with the common or garden species, with Hoopoe being the best of the bunch.