Wildflower Tours

Namaqualand

I do small-group day-tours to the West Coast National Park and also small-group 4 or 5 day tours to Nieuwoudtville, Biedouw Valley, Clanwilliam, Paternoster and West Coast National Park during August and September.

These tours are all planned around the requirements of my guests. However, generally speaking we leave Cape Town on a Monday morning around 08:00 and travel northwards up the N7, stopping at Clanwilliam for a quick snack before heading into the Biedouw Valley. From the Biedouw Valley we retrace our steps back to the N7 and onto the small town on Van Rhynsdorp where we leave the N7 behind and drive through the Knersvlakte and up the spectacular Van Rhyns Pass and into the Kouebokkeveld. We should now start to see the fields of Namaqualand daisies. We should arrive at our guesthouse in Nieuwoudtville at around 17:00.

Next morning after breakfast we head to see the Kokerboom Forest and the Nieuwoudtville Waterfalls. From here we drive onto at least two of the farms around Nieuwoudtville and the Hantam Botanical Gardens where the flowers should be blooming in great profusion. It must be remembered that every flower season is different with a lot depending on the rainfall and also the weather on the day, the flowers will only bloom when the sun is out and the air temperature is above 15c. We will return to our guest house by 17:30.

The following day we will leave our guesthouse after breakfast and head to Lamberts Bay to see the Gannet Bird Colony on Bird Island before heading down the West Coast to the small fishing village of Paternoster where we will spend the night.

Next morning we leave Paternoster after breakfast and head to the West Coast National Park and to the Postberg Section of the park that is only open from 1st August to 30th September for the flowers.

After we have had our fill of the wildflowers we head back to Cape Town, getting back at around 17:30.

Should you be interested in joining me on any of these tours please contact me on titealistair@gmail.com and I will let you have full details as to dates, costs etc.

Space is limited so do not delay.

The 2005 wildflower season is now over. The season was a bit shorter than normal due to rains arriving a bit later than normal and not as much as normal. However, the flowers continued to wow visitors and on one of our drives from Nieuwoudtville to Clan William via the Botterkloof Pass we saw 7 tortoises crossing the road, an African Wild Cat, about 50 Springbok, Verreaux (Black) Eagles, a flock of about 20 Blue Cranes flying overhead, Ludwigs Bastard, and in the West Coast National Park apart from the normal Cape Mountain Zebra, Springbok, newly born Bontebok and Eland a young Caracal came running out of the flowers and ran in front of the vehicle for a while. Seeing breathtaking flowers is not all you see on a flower tour with me; you never know what is coming up next.