My top tips for chasing flowers

The flowers are fading, pulling on their seedy caps to sleep for another year. After a prolonged drought, it has been a magnificent year for flowers in Namaqualand and the West Coast. We were lucky enough to see some of the best. But this is not always the case. Even in a good year like this, you can miss the daisies – let alone the not-so-good years.

I know this because this year’s was the sixth chasing-flowers road trip across the three Cape provinces of South Africa for #him and I. Each spring, we’ve set off from the coast of the Eastern Cape, meandered across the Northern Cape and loitered in the Western Cape in search of the blooms that blaze across fields and over mountains.

In our first year, we looped around the northern reaches of the Northern Cape, via places called Prieska, Groblershoop and Pofadder to reach Springbok, known for its flower tapestries. It took two days of driving, covering around 1,400km. And we found … desert. We’d timed our first trip with the start of a severe drought.

That year, the rains did not come to Springbok. Neither did the flowers.

As we drove south from Springbok, we saw flowers for the first time in a little town called Kamiskroon – what excitement for these naïve eyes – and more around Clanwilliam, Citrusdal, Eland’s Bay and Tietiesbaai (Cape Columbine). We veered off into the West Coast National Park, Postberg (or Posberg, if you like) section, an unplanned detour on our way to Cape Town. And nothing, nothing, prepared us for what we stumbled upon: fields thick with daisies, decorated with zebra, eland, ostrich and wildebeest. I posted about it here.

The drought worsened from then, but that did not stop us doing the trip again and again. The next year, we headed across the country from Graaf Reinet to Nieuwoudtville and its Hantam National Botanical Garden – and found one flower. In case you don’t believe me, I  share a picture here of that flower. The garden did not even charge us to enter. The despair of the town was palpable.

But I digress from my intention in this post: to share with you what we have learned about chasing flowers in this part of the world. In no particular order:

1. Give yourself enough time

In our first year, when the flowers did not appear at Springbok, they were superb around Nieuwoudtville. But we had planned just one night there – bad move as the sun did not appear, the daisies did not open, and we had to get to our next destination. Ideally, aim for three days in one place, more if you can: hopefully at least one of those days will be sunny and warm enough to entice the daisies to dance.

2. Find other things to do in daisy-unfriendly weather

View whales and wild waves on the West Coast, rock paintings in the Cedarburg, or windmills near Loeriesfontein. There are birds everywhere, including flamingo colonies in several areas along the West Coast and a huge Cape gannet colony at Lambert’s Bay (wear a mask!). In Doringbaai, a fisherman enthralled us in a thick Cape accent with his fishy tales of diamonds and disappearances at sea. In Goegap, the nature reserve south of Springbok, there were no flowers that first year, but we melted through a quiver tree forest in the heat – these are glorious and utterly other-worldly to East Coasters – and got close to gemsbok and zebra. And then there are the wine farms – some of the world’s best. Those are just a few examples.

3. Travel south

The daisies open to follow the sun. So, when the sun is behind you – that’s north of you in South Africa – you will be seeing the full faces of the flowers. If you turn towards the sun, you will barely know you are looking at flowers. Try it.

4. Pay attention to the signage: No, don’t lie in the flowers

I know: it looks so inviting. But if you lie in the big beds of flowers or stomp over them, not only will you likely kill off that patch, you could also have a nasty surprise. There are snakes! They come out in the warmth that the daisies love. I do not tell a lie.

5. Seize the moment

When you see fields of flowers or interesting flora displays, stop and enjoy what is there. We dashed past Calvinia to get to Hantam before the daisies closed up for the day: we didn’t get to Hantam in time, and the magnificence around Calvinia went by in a blur. Slow down.

6. Be patient

At least half the world, it seems, will be trying to see one of the greatest flower shows on Earth. We were caught up in traffic jams – real snarl-ups – in Posberg in September this year. Keep cool, even when some dude insists on playing doof-doof music at peace-shattering volumes.

7. Not all flowers are daisies

Even when the daisies don’t emerge for a day or two (or year or two), you can enjoy a vast richness of plants. Vygies in the most vibrant colours surround the village of McGregor in the Robertson winelands (oh yes, did I mention wine?). And if you venture from the village up the Road to Nowhere, you’ll see all kinds of proteas and their relatives dripping with flowers. The Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden at Worcester is so worth a visit for its vygies and quiver trees; apparently, it’s the only truly succulent garden in the Southern Hemisphere.

Fernkloof in Hermanus is a treasure: you’ll find ferns and waterfalls, proteas and restios, with the most incredible views opening as you skirt the side of the mountain. The teeniest, most interesting succulents grow among the quartz in the knersvlakte, north of Vanrynsdorp. I took the pics in the gallery below this text on the edge of the knersvlakte in September 2021.

You just have to think outside the box a little and open your eyes to what is in front of you.

For #him and I, it is time to veer in another direction when we road trip again: Mpumalanga via Eswatini maybe, or the Waterberg via the Midlands. An entire beautiful country and more awaits.