Flower Season. The Capes Floral Kingdom

Blouberg to Rondeberg – 40min

As you leave Café Blouberg, turn left at the T-junction into Sir David Baird Drive. Go straight through the traffic circle. Turn left at the second circle, then go straight through the third circle. Enter Melkbosstrand (8km). At the traffic lights at about 18km, turn left onto the R27 Velddrif. Turn right into Rondeberg at about 56km. The road dips into Melkbosstrand before you rejoin the R27. If you’re planning a picnic later in the West Coast National Park, turn right towards Cape Town (instead of left to Velddrif) and backtrack a few hundred metres to the Total fuel station and Farmyard Farmstall on your left.

It’s a mouth-watering pantry of pâtés, preserves, home-baked breads, pies, cakes and quiches. It’s pet-friendly too – there’re water and dog biscuits at the door. A little further on look out for the army of power lines marching towards Koeberg nuclear power station on your left. As nuclear power stations go it probably has the best view in the world and must be the only one situated in a nature reserve, surrounded by an abundance of birds and small game.

You’ll be tempted to speed up along this stretch of good tar, but keep a sharp eye open for tortoises making their death defying optimistic way across the road, and if you go too fast you’ll miss the roadside flowers that spring up from around this point. Also look out for guinea fowl, remembering that if one bursts out of the bushes into the road, there are usually a few more following behind. On either side of the road you’ll see huge amounts of Port Jackson wattle – large bushes with elongated, dark green leaves, which in spring become a riot of fuzzy yellow flowers.

These aren’t the indigenous flora you came to see, but rather the sad legacy of humans interfering with nature. The early settlers called this area De Groote Woeste Vlakte, or Great Desolate Plain, as its shifting sands and dunes made it almost impassable. In 1845, in an effort to bind and stabilise the sand, Port Jackson wattle and hakea were imported from Australia. These hardy shrubs felt so at home, that they started taking over vast areas of the Cape Flats. 

Pass the turning to Groote Post (that’s for Day Four, unless you’re seeing a show in Darling), then turn into the Rondeberg Private Nature Reserve about 10 kilometres further on for a close look at Sandveld flowers. At Rondeberg you will receive a huge welcome from Mark and Carol Duckitt, who have converted their dairy farm into a full-time West Coast fynbos reserve. While both stress that they’re not botanists (‘we’re enthusiastic amateurs’), they have a contagious passion for flowers the rest of us would probably miss.

It’s taken over four years, but so far they’ve identified over 800 species on the farm. There’s also a dried and pressed specimen of each one in the information centre, along with paintings, life-size watercolours, which were done by their friend and artist Lynda de Wet. But the idea is to get out and see the real thing, or as Mark puts it: ‘Get on your knees, bum in the air and smell them! Get some pollen on your nose. Most people go daisy watching in their cars with air-conditioning and say, “Isn’t this lovely!” Well it is, but it’s only a tenth of what the West Coast actually has to offer.’

Although the West Coast is famous for the rainbow carpets of daisies in spring, there are flowers to be seen almost every single month of the year.
Mark and Carol take guided walks at 11:00 and 15:00 (but book first), covering about three kilometres in two hours, all on the flat so there’s nothing too strenuous. Stay for a lunch of traditional farm-made, West Coast fare (with Mark as wine steward, Carol as waitress and Lynda doing the cooking), or head for the West Coast National Park.

Rondeberg to West Coast National Park – 40min

At the Rondeberg gate, turn right onto the R27. Pass Yzerfontein turn-off after 48km (see detour below). Turn left into West Coast National Park (R27 gate) at 60km. A little further along the R27 you can take a three-kilometre detour down the Yzerfontein (R315) road to see an old lime kiln, or keep going all the way to Yzerfontein, which is a good place for whale-spotting from June to November.

The West Coast National Park, classified as a wetland of international importance, embraces the majority of the Langebaan lagoon and its islands, attracting an astonishing number of birds.

Between 50 000 and 70 000 birds fly a staggering 15 000 kilometres from northern Russia each year to spend their summer around the lagoon. One of the best things about the park is its bird hides, especially the one near the Geelbek visitors’ centre. The walkway creeps out into the lagoon, putting you smack in the centre of the avian action. But the park’s main claim to fame is the floral kaleidoscope in spring, depending on the rains. Straddling both Strandveld and Sandveld, the land becomes a jewelled carpet of vygies, gazanias, daisies and more.