Entering South Africa, after our two hour border crossing, the road immediately becomes curvy as it snakes through the mountains which is in contrast to the straight lines on the Namibian side and makes for a few long waits behind trucks as we try to find an opportunity to pass them. After leaving the mountains it becomes straight again and we make good time.
One thing that we notice is that there are more flowers on the side of the road and stop in a rest area to take a few pictures. We are hoping there will be even more in the future, the area is famous for its spring flowers.
There are a few different species even here and we try and fail to identify them, we don’t know enough yet about them. But we will learn tomorrow…
The largest town on the stretch of road is Springbok and this is where we have to leave the main road and drive about 20 km to Naries Namakwa through a couple of townships. We are lucky that we have a good description about how to pass through the city as for the first time in quite some time the roads are not well marked and we wouldn’t have found the correct road easily. The road is paved but really curvy and it rises and falls abruptly and therefore we have to drive slower. The hills are green though and full of flowers and we cannot wait to arrive and examine them closer.
After arriving at the reception we notice a multitude of weaver birds in the trees in front of the main house that are building their new homes and repairing the old ones and are really gregarious.
It is quite exciting to be able to see them up close at work and while resting. They are really used to visitors and do not seem to mind us at all, how cool!
To our surprise and delight we are upgraded to a separated house in the middle of the blooming flowers. The house is large with two bedrooms, two bathrooms separated by a large living room with fireplace. Outsides in the back we have a terrace with a firepit and in front we have private parking.
Given the cold that we already can feel (at nightime it is near freezing temperatures) we group all heat making equipment in one room and bathroom and keep them at reasonable temperatures while the rest of the house is much colder.
After moving our bags inside we brave the cold and go outside to take a few pictures of the flowers which unfortunately are almost closed already for the night. What we find is a nice maintained trail passing next to our cabin that we take.
We don’t get far as we stop at almost every step to take a pictures of the views and flowers. After darkness descends we return to our room and drive back to the main house for dinner which starts exactly at seven o’clock.
The dinner has probably the best presentation that we have seen on our trip and is also quite yummy. It is a full menu so we are served everything starting with appetizer and soup to main courses and then dessert.
The dining room is full and the majority of the other people are from the UK and South Africa and retired and they visited the flower area that we intend to visit the next day so we listen to their descriptions and try to get a feeling about the stage of the flowering in the Namaqualand National Park.
After dessert, really full we return to our cabin and after some stargazing given that this is our last good opportunity in Africa we retire for the night.
In the morning it is getting warmer and after packing we first walk around the house and then do a short hike on the hiking trail near the house.
The flowers are opening already and it looks like a scene from a romance movie as we walk through the meadows.
There are quite a few different flowers but most of them are drowned out by whatever dominant flower is in the area. In most cases here that is the yellow Starvation Ragwort that seems to have taken over whole meadows. But the orange Namaqualand daisies are fighting back in multiple areas :).
We do our best to remark also the other flowers, some are doing their best to be remarked like the very interesting looking purple Flesh Viooltjie.
Another special plant is the Hedgehog Lilly a succulent that looks more like a waterlily in the desert than anything else.
After the short hike we drive to the main building for breakfast and again watch the weaver birds at work as they build and improve their homes.
Before breakfast we check out so we don’t have to return to our room afterwards. The breakfast is the usual and is quite good and filling. We can also enjoy the great view of the gardens compared to dinner when it was already dark outside. And then it is on to exploring the parks that protect the flowers in Namaqualand.
