The Wild Flowers of the Cape & Namaqualand

In September, as the UK begins its inexorable slide towards winter, 9,500 kilometres to the south the mountains, deserts and grasslands of South Africa’s Western and Northern Cape Provinces burst into life. Here, the start of the austral spring is marked by an explosion of colour, as a kaleidoscope of flowers bloom – the majority of which are endemic to the region – and carpet the land from the wave-pounded shoreline of the Cape Peninsula north to the rolling arid hills of Namaqualand. This exciting tour is timed for early September to coincide with the peak of this spectacular floral display, the intensity of which is controlled by the extent and timing of South Africa’s unpredictable winter rains. Travelling north from Cape Town to Springbok we will explore a wide range of different habitats during our time here, culminating in five nights around Nieuwoudtville and the Namaqua National Park at the very heart of the region’s spring flower displays. Of course, we will not ignore the mammals, birds and other wildlife of Africa’s south-western corner and are sure to sample a few of the Cape’s excellent wines too!

Our holiday starts with a flight into Cape Town where we will be based in a comfortable hotel on the Cape Peninsula for the first three nights of the tour. An undoubted highlight of our time here will be a visit to Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden on the lower slopes of Table Mountain, world-famous for its collection of native flowers including proteas, restios, heaths and a wonderful stand of the rare Silver Tree (Leucadendron argentium). These are the dominant ingredients of the unique ‘fynbos’ vegetation, an endemic assemblage of plants and flowers that carpet the coastal regions of the Western Cape Province, including the spectacular Cape Peninsula. Armed with the knowledge of our time at Kirstenbosch, we will explore the Peninsula in search of some of the 8,500 species found within the ‘Cape Flora Kingdom’, one of only eight floral kingdoms worldwide. These should include the long tubular flowers of Erica plunkenetii, the prostate Protea acaulis and the Cape Sugarbush (Protea repens). The colourful proteas and leucospermums attract a variety of sunbirds including the Cape Sugarbird and Orange-breasted Sunbird, both of which are endemic to the Cape region. During our time around Cape Town we will also visit the African Penguin colony at Boulders Beach and watch Southern Right Whales fluking offshore in False Bay.

Next we begin our journey north, stopping en route in Langebaan for one night in order to explore the West Coast National Park, especially the Postberg section of the reserve that is only open in August and September when the flowers are at their best. This is the southern edge of the great spring flowering that carpets Namaqualand a little further to the north. The meadows and rocky hills here should be ‘painted’ in the yellows, whites, reds and purples of a wide variety of daisies and other flowers including Gazania krebsiana, Dimorphotheca pluvialis (Cape Rain Daisy) and Ursinia anthemoides (Solar Fire). Amongst this sea of colour stride Bontebok, Eland, Cape Mountain Zebra and Ostrich, whilst overhead fly Black Harrier.

Moving on, we will spend our next five nights in the very heart of the flower displays, split between two nights near the small town of Nieuwoudtville and three nights in Kamieskroon, just to the south of the Namaqua National Park. If the winter rains have been kind, the kaleidoscope of colour here can be breathtaking! Our time in the Namaqua National Park is sure to be another highlight of the tour. The reserve, which covers over 700 square kilometres, is home to an estimated 3,500 species of plant, of which up to 1,000 may be endemic to Namaqualand! It also holds the world’s greatest diversity of succulent plants and is the only declared desert ‘Biodiversity Hotspot’ on Earth! The ‘Renosterveld’ surrounding Nieuwoudtville is equally fascinating botanically and has a particularly rich bulb flora, including both Sparaxis elegans and the rare Sparaxis tricolor. A day trip north to Springbok will take us to our most northerly point on the tour and offers the chance to enjoy the flowers, birds and mammals of the nearby Goegap Nature Reserve. As we appreciate the colourful flora we will not ignore the local fauna and should see such mammals as Gemsbok, Springbok and Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra, as well as birds including Southern Black Korhaan, Verreaux’s Eagle and the beautiful Bokmakierie shrike.

Finally, we head south once more back towards Cape Town, stopping for two nights en route in Clanwilliam. Here we will explore the varied habitats along the Olifants River and in the Cedarberg Mountains, before returning to Cape Town for our overnight flight home.