AUGUST 2020

SPRINGTIME!

When we’ve turned the page over on our calendar to the month of September, we knew spring has arrived in South Africa!

We are very blessed to see the most beautiful spring flowers on our doorstep … actually, these pretty flowers are in the field at the back of our house!

When we saw the flowers already starting to bloom in August this year, we’ve decided to pay a visit to the Postberg Nature Reserve. This reserve is situated within the West Coast National Park at Langebaan in the Western Cape province.

Postberg Nature Reserve is closed for most of the year, but in the two months of August and September it’s open to the public. This is the time to view the exceptional carpet of spring flowers in the reserve.

We left early one morning and our first stop was at the Geelbek Restaurant in the West Coast National Park. This restaurant has a proud South African heritage that dates back to the 1700’s. It is right on the picturesque Langebaan lagoon and the Cape Dutch building is a national monument – worldwide known for their succulent South African meals and dishes such as: Bobotie, Venison Pie, Geelbek Mussels, Crab cakes and many more favourites.

Since it was still quite early, we only had a big cup of coffee which we’ve enjoyed in their lovely garden.

Though our trip was purely to see the beautiful spring flowers, we were fortunate to see some ostriches on our way (we also saw more animals later in the Postberg Nature Reserve – pictures towards the end of this article).

As we’ve entered the Postberg Nature Reserve, we could almost immediately see the carpet of different colors of spring flowers!

The gravel circular route gives you plenty of opportunity to stop and take photo’s of the flowers – I just love the sea of mostly white flowers that covers the ground and then … as you walk closer, the amazing detail on the flowers are truly special!

While driving in the reserve, the Atlantic Ocean is most of the time in one’s view … and how spectacular is it!

To see the flowers in such an abundance, is a feast for the eye – it is almost as if you don’t know where to look! But it was when we took pictures of individual flowers, that we were quite surprised to see just how beautiful they really were!

Here are a couple of close-up shots of the flowers:

And when you stand a bit further to take a “group photo” of the flowers, you will also be amazed at the many different colours clustered together!

As mentioned earlier, we were fortunate to see some animals on our way – always a bonus! Here are some pictures:

As we’ve continued to drive through the reserve, the flowers were most of the times on both sides of the gravel road.

When we got closer to the ocean, the field literally changed into a colourful artwork! Green and white flowers were dominant, with patches of orange in between – just beautiful!

Once we’ve reached the ocean, we could still see some wild flowers – almost growing in between the rocks!

Though it was still chilly, we could see a couple of tourists on the beach, enjoying the sunny weather.

We’ve ended our journey with a trip to the lookout point. From here we had a stunning view over Langebaan and the lagoon.

We’ve felt privileged to have seen such beautiful sceneries, while enjoying a day out in the sun!

A few weeks after our visit, we’ve heard the wild spring flowers were now in full bloom and even more spectacular than what we’ve seen!