Flowers of Namaqualand - Overview

Flowers in Namaqualand

Amazing wild flowers

The annual wild flowers, which bloom in Namaqualand each year, must be one of the natural wonders of the world.  One of the stories which could be used to best explain the amazing exhibition of flowers is that when God was moving around the world to spread the flowers, He tripped in Namaqualand and the bag of seeds of different plants He was carrying fell open and way too many different seeds fell out of the bag. Not only are there many millions of flowers, but also an amazing diversity of flowers. Then, of course there are the insects which are attracted to the flowers. A macro photographers dream! What really makes this spectacular is that for most of the year, Namaqualand is a pretty dry also desert like area. Then in Spring, everything changes. The dry semi desert comes alive with millions of flowers. The flower season can start anytime from mid July through August and finishes late September.

Wonderful place for macro-photography

Marie and I have been to the flowers in Namaqualand four time. Each time is different. The big trick is always trying to get to the flowers at their peek. This can be very difficult to get right. The display of flowers differs from season to season. The start of the flowering can also vary by a few weeks each year. The amount of rain and the timing of the rain before the start of the flower season is critical. No rain, no flowers! Too much rain - poor flowers. Just the right amount of rain, at just the right time, the perfect flower season. Then of course, temperature and daylight also play a role. For example, this year, the rain was good at the right time and the correct amount. A sever cold spell has pushed the flowering back by about two weeks. There are various web pages where you can get updates of the flower season and you can use these to try and plan you trip to the flowers. Most of these available web sites are advertising tours, so even if it is not a good flower year, you might get information that it is a good year.  But even these web sites might not give you the best information on the flowers.

Millions of flowers

Lots of insects

There is an Namaqualand flowers Facebook page which can also be most helpful. Bottom line is you need to put a bit of effort into picking the best time to go. Just remember, that many other people are also looking at the websites and planning their visit, and available accommodation can get full very quickly when the news is good on the flowers!

On our first trip to the flowers, we thought that they were absolutely amazing. Many of the local people also said that we had done the flowers at a really good time and that it was a particularly good season. We just loved it. On other trips, we took other people with us to see the flowers. On each of these trips Marie and I were a bit disappointed (but, I must stress, only a bit disappointed) by the flowers, but the people who were with us were in ore of the flowers. We were fortunate (or maybe not fortunate) in that our first trip was a really spectacular year for the flowers and we saw the flowers at their very best on our first trip. However, every time we went was spectacular!  So the moral of the story is that your first time you see the flowers they will be spectacular for you. Yes, there could be better years, but your first view of the flowers will always be special.With your first visit you will also not have anything to compare to, so it will be special!

Flowers everywhere

The epicentre of the flowers is the sleepy little hollow of Springbok. This is a small town in the Northern part of the Cape. Normally, not too much going on in the town. Then there are the flowers and the avalanche of tourists. The town does not really have the infrastructure for so many tourists, so finding a place to eat can be quite a challenge. For four or five weeks of the year the town comes alive and the few eating places get fully booked very quickly.

My photo which was published in the Captured experiences book

Our normal procedure is that we drive to Vergeleegen Guest house (I could not find their own web address, but they are on Booking.com) near Kakamas and spend the night there. We have stayed there quite a few times and have even made the 120 km detour to stay there when we go to the Kgalagadi. It is a really great place to stay for a night and they have an excellent restaurant. Really good food. They have a Kalahari schnitzel, which is a beautiful fillet steak, crumbed and served with a wonderful biltong sauce (sorry my vegan wife - but this is good!) 

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In Springbok, we normally stay at Mountain View Guest House (www.mountview.co.za). This is a really great place. Very clean and neat with a really good breakfast. The people are also very helpful with good information on where to find the best flowers. The owner is a keen photographer, so she gives very good info on where to find good flowers. The little hill just behind the guesthouse also normally has a good display of flowers. We have also stayed at Naries Namakwa Retreat. (www.naries.co.za). This was also a great stay and they had amazing flowers on the property.

Another must visit destination is the Skilpad (tortoise) National park which now has been renamed the Namaqua National Park. The drive to the park also passes through private farm lands and there are normally amazing flower displays. I will do a separate post on this nature reserve.

The flowers in Namaqualand is a "must do" and it is just the most amazing display of wild flowers you will ever see in you life.