Westcoast and Namaqualand Tour

Category: General News | Author: CaravanParks.com | Date posted: Wednesday, 17 October, 2012 | Reach: 32719 4344

WEST COAST AND NAMAQUALAND FLOWER TOUR by Desmond and Priscilla Evert

Westcoast and Namaqualand Tour

On a beautiful, warm, sunny Tuesday 11th September, we left Cape Town with our bakkie loaded and caravan hitched heading for our first stop on our West Coast/Namaqualand Flower Tour.    When we arrived at Yzerfontein, it was still hot and windless.    A walk through the caravan park to choose a site had Des a little apprehensive about camping there after seeing a snake swallowing a bird right on the driveway into the camping area.    I was a little too slow with the camera and the snake disappeared into the brush on the path to the swimming pool. We chose a lovely site protected by tall hedges and maneuvered the caravan in so that it would be easy to pull out again.     We put up the rally awning and then settled down to light a fire for the braai.

The next morning it was cloudy and misty and we didn’t think we would see many flowers along the coast, so we drove inland to Darling and Hopefield.    It was still partly cloudy but sunny enough for the flowers to open up.     There were some flowers near Darling, but the flowers near and in Hopefield were beautiful.     We decided to have a seafood late lunch at Paternoster at our favourite seafood restaurant (Voorstrandt Restaurant), and as usual the food was magnificent.

Day 2 in Yzerfontein was a lovely sunny day, with only scattered clouds, so we headed to the West Coast National Park.     The flowers were beautiful especially in the Postberg Nature Reserve (which is only open every August and September for flower viewing).    Lunch at the Restaurant in the West Coast National Park was lovely and we headed back to Yzerfontein with plenty photographs.

The next morning after taking down the rally awning, we headed to Langebaan just for an overnight stop before heading off to Clanwilliam Dam.   The road as far as Citrusdal was quite a good road but from Citrusdal there were plenty stop/go’s and the condition of the road was shocking.   As we pulled up to our site at the Clanwilliam Dam the bakkie’s left front balljoint decided it had had enough of the awful roads and wanted out!!    As it was Friday afternoon 2pm we were a little concerned that every motor mechanic in Clanwilliam would already have hitched up his boat and would be heading off for the weekend.     Luckily the misfortune struck right in front of a lovely site in the caravan park and after unhitching the van from the bakkie we pushed it onto the site and started offloading the bakkie.   A quick call to the Reception desk to ask them to call a mechanic for us was all it needed for a mechanic with tow truck to arrive in the caravanpark 15 miutes later to hitch up the bakkie and tow it into his workshop for repairs. As we were more or less stranded without a vehicle, we had to walk into town on the Saturday morning to buy what we needed.      The heat and the L O N G uphill back to the caravan park had us fairly bushed by the time we arrived back at the caravan.    The resort itself is very pretty and we were very comfortable with the facilities.   Sunday morning saw the electricity going off from around 8am and only coming on around 9pm again.    ‘Luckily the fridge managed to stay cool in the 30-odd degree heat.We both had a swim in the dam and later had a lovely potjie after which we sat in the dark under the rally awning and chatted until the lights came on again.

Monday morning around 9.30 the mechanic brought the bakkie back to us and declared it “fit” to take the road again.    We then went to town for a quick shopping trip before hitching the van and heading off to van Rhynsdorp.    After arriving in van Rhynsdorp we parked the van, set up the satellite tv and relaxed until the ZAR Restaurant (inside the caravan park) opened.     We can highly recommend the restaurant for good food at good prices.

Tuesday morning (one week after we left CT), we left the van in the caravan park and headed out to Niewoudville and Loeriesfontein.     The flowers on the farm Papkuilsfontein, just outside Niewoudville were beautiful, but the waterfall on the farm was awesome.    It was a rather long drive on a very narrow gravel and sandy farm road and then a couple hundred meters climbing and trapsing over rocks and boulders to get there, but so well worth the effort.    Then we headed to Loeriesfontein.Unfortunately the flowers in Loeriesfontein had already gone off, but the windmill museum was something we had never seen.

The windmill museum is the biggest collection of windmills in the world.    The other windmill museum is in Nevada in the USA but doesn’t have as many windmills as in Loeriesfontein.

Westcoast and Namaqualand Tour

The little town museum (on the same premises as the windmill museum) , was also something that we enjoyed

going through. On the road between Loeriesfontein and Niewoudville is also the Niewoudville Waterfalls which are stunning and only about 100m off the road. One cant believe that there are waterfalls so near the road and you cant even see it from the road. We arrived back in van Rhynsdorp quite late and after another hearty meal at the restaurant we had a shower and collapsed into bed exhausted.

Thursday saw us heading up to Kammieskroon and our drive there was relaxing as the roads were a lot better. We had planned to spend a night at Kammieskroon, but the state of the roads in the town as well as the state of the caravan park at the Hotel, had us making a neat U-turn and heading off to Springbok instead. We were pleasantly surprised by the caravan park. It was neat, clean and had quite a number of caravans, tents, motorhomes and offroad caravans. We parked next to an old couple with a bakkie that they had converted into a motorhome with which they had toured through Africa (going as far up as Sudan). We were entertained by a couple of stories of “ablution facilities” which sometimes were a mere “hole in the ground” which you had to use for a toilet, as well as for showering etc. As it wasn’t very late when we arrived there, we went out on the Concordia/Okiep road and saw the most awesome fields of flowers alongside the road.

Westcoast and Namaqualand Tour

The next morning we left fairly early and first visited Nababeep.     The flowers at the entrance to the town as well as in the town itself were stunning.    We also visited the “Geluksgat” copper mine and drove through the little town looking at the rundown buildings that were once part of a thriving town in the days that the mines were still producing loads of copper.    Then we headed down to Kammieskroon as that was the entrance to the Namaqua National Park and Skilpad Flower Reserve.      The 21km dirt road was awful, but the spectacular flowers were almost unbelievable.     That was the first time we had seen flowers as far as the eye could see.    The hills almost looked like they were ablaze.     If you ever want to see Namaqualand flowers, you need only head to the Skilpad flower reserve.    We were in awe!!!    I will attach a few pics at the end of this document.

It was early to bed after our long day because we planned to leave Springbok by about 5am to head off without the caravan to Augrabies Falls.     We managed to leave at 4.30am and took about 3 and a half hours to Augrabies.     The waterfall, walks and lookout points were fantastic and we were thankful we made the trip.     However, the “miggies” were in such abundance that even the guy at the entrance gate to the Augrabies National Park had to wear a fine net head covering to keep them out of his eyes, ears and nose. We arrived back in Springbok around 3.30pm tired and just wanting a nice shower and comfortable bed.

The next morning saw us heading south again from Springbok to van Rhynsdorp (and our favourite restaurant).     The only negative thing about this little town in the amount of flies, as it is situated in amongst the farms.   As it was quite late the afternoon when we arrived there, we just set up the van and then went for a shower and dinner and then hit the sack.    Sunday morning saw us heading out to Strandfontein and Doringbaai for the day (without the caravan), to experience this area’s beach resort. Strandfontein is very pretty and their caravan park is lovely.     Fortunately we had a couple naartjies in the car with us as there was not one open shop in Strandfontein.    Then on to Doringbaai where we were pleasantly surprised by a lovely little restaurant where we had really good seafood.     After getting back to van Rhynsdorp and a shower and braai, we settled down to some tv and an early night.

Monday 24th September, saw us leaving van Rhynsdorp in a fine, misty drizzle and heading south to Citrusdal.    The roads, again, did not disappoint – THEY WERE TERRIBLE!!!    Our last night of our tour was spent at Citrus Creek Caravan Park, which is in the town and has some of the neatest ablution blocks that we have seen on this tour.    Again, only the miggies proved a nuisance.

Westcoast and Namaqualand Tour

Tuesday 25th September and we headed back to Cape Town and our precious grandsons whom we have missed something crazy.

For those of you who want to plan a trip like this I would highly recommend that you do it late August and then make sure that you visit the Postberg Flower Reserve near Langebaan (in the West Coast National Park) and the Skilpad Flower Reserve (in the Namaqua National Park). It is possible to do this with a normal sedan motorcar if you travel carefully in the Namaqua National Park, but a bakkie is ideal. All the places we visited were recommended to us and we would also advise you to include them all in your tour.

By Desmond and Priscilla Evert

CaravanParks.com