DAY ONE ON MY SPRING FLOWER TOUR

In August   2012I signed up with Traveltime for a 5 day tour up the West Coast to view Spring flowers. Our tour leader was affable Carol Coombs, super efficient, and completely unflappable.  I’ve used some of her photos in this post and added a few of my own. I freely admit I’m not the world’s best photographer, and almost as soon as we’d entered Postberg, my point-&-click camera jammed, after I’d only taken two or three pics of the flowers. I’ve included a few below. My camera remained jammed throughout the trip, so that was the end of holiday snaps for me.

Our first stop was at the Postberg Nature Reserve to look at flowers and we weren’t disappointed. The flowers were magnificent– great fields of white daisies which looked like fallen snow; drifts of heavenly blue/purple; tiny patches of salmon pink close to the ground; screaming cerise mesembryanthemums  climbing over bushes; infrequent patches of pale apricot and  bright orange and yellow daisies  by the million.

A field of flowers in the West Coast National Park in South Africa. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Reserve has wildlife too, as well as fields and fields of flowers. Placid bontebok were lying down amid the flowers, resting in the warm midday sun. On a previous visit to the Reserve I was lucky enough to see a caracal (red lynx) slipping through the bushes.

Spring is tortoise breeding time and we saw a few, on the sandy roadside verges.  Why – when they have the whole of Africa to roam in – why they persist in crossing the roads, is a mystery to me. At intervals I saw ostrich stalking through the fynbos; raptors on fence posts – the West Coast area  is full of them, they feast on rodents on the inland wheat-fields.  We drove above the Langebaan Lagoon, and the turquoise sea in the  lagoon was decorated with lines of flamingos, with their  plumage of  delicate, palest pink.

Lunch was at the Geelbek Centre in the Flower Reserve, where I ate the  best hake & chips ever. Just as well the food was wonderful, it lessened my irritation at having to buy an over-priced  cap – having stupidly left mine at home. You’d think, with all the travelling I’ve done over the years, I would have remembered to pack a hat, but I didn’t.  Well, we pay for our mistakes, and I did.

http://www.traveltime.co.za/Slider/Flowers%202012/Spring_Flowers121.htm