Namaqualand and the Spring Flowers

For A Few Weeks In Spring, Semi Desert That Looks Dead For Eleven Months Of The Year Turns Orange, White And Purple With One Of The Largest Wildflower Displays On Earth Thousands Of Succulent And Daisy Species, Many Endemic, Across Hundreds Of Kilometres Of The Northern Cape. IT DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON WINTER RAIN AND FAILS IN DRY YEARS · Springbok, Northern Cape

For eleven months of the year Namaqualand looks like what it is: hundreds of kilometres of stony semi-desert in the Northern Cape, grey-brown and apparently dead. Then, if the winter rain has come at the right time and in the right quantity, it turns orange, white and purple across a scale that is genuinely one of the great botanical events on earth - thousands of succulent and daisy species, a great many of them found nowhere else, flowering at once over an area larger than some countries. The display runs roughly August to September and the row will not promise it, because IT DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON WINTER RAIN AND FAILS IN DRY YEARS. Some springs are world-class and some are a disappointment, and nobody knows which until a few weeks before. Springbok is the base, Skilpad and the Namaqua park sections hold the reliable concentrations, and the flowers open to the sun so a cloudy day shows you nothing.

Across the Northern Cape between Springbok and the Olifants River, with Skilpad and the Namaqua park sections near Kamieskroon, Springbok, Northern Cape, South Africa

The park sections keep daylight hours with a SANParks conservation fee, and the flowers themselves are across hundreds of kilometres of public road, farmland and reserve. THE SEASON IS ROUGHLY AUGUST TO SEPTEMBER AND MOVES, AND IT FAILS COMPLETELY IN DRY YEARS - check the flower reports in the week before travelling rather than booking months ahead and hoping. THE FLOWERS OPEN TO THE SUN, so the middle of a bright day is the only time they are properly out and a cloudy day shows you closed buds; they also face the sun, so drive with it behind you. Accommodation in Springbok, Kamieskroon and Garies books out entirely in a good season. Much of the display is on private farmland visible from the road rather than enterable. Springbok is about six hours from Cape Town, and the region is MALARIA-FREE.

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