Flowers 2026

The time has come for Anna and I to go somewhere for a while. Irrespective of whether you are working or retired, life tends to evolve to routine. Before you know it, with small variations, each day plays out like most others. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but once you think about it, you get the itches to break out. Maybe not dramatically, but just change things for a while. Fresh. New. Chuck routine out the door for a week or so. Which is exactly what we intend doing.

Our last trip to see spring flowers in Namakwaland was not wholly successful. Mainly because we never got to Namakwaland. Thing to do if you want to go to Namakwaland is to go to Namakwaland. We allowed ourselves to be distracted by the abundance of flowers along route 62 and in the Cedarberg and never ventured north. Which, so seasoned flower hands tell us, is where you really see flowers. All this stuff to the south is just a pale reflection of the real thing. So, this time we are determined. To the north, come what may!
We are, it seems not the only ones curious to see this year’s flowers. Which the experts say should be exceptional, given the high rainfall. Talk is of a super bloom….It soon became clear that we will have to book accommodation. So we did. The planned trip is from here to Riebeeck Kasteel as a sort of halfway house. Looking forward to a cold glass of Boggom & Voetsek…..

And then on to Kamieskroon for 3 nights.

Using it as a base for exploration. We then turn southwards to VanRhynsdorp for 3 nights.

Then south to Tulbach to break the trip home.

We will soon start prepping for the trip to ensure all is thought of. (He means I will be prepping, while he waves his arms around. For him the prep is done when the wine is loaded in the car. He thinks about stuff. I do stuff. That way we get it done)

In our absence, Effa will house- and dogsit.

The Map:

Not much left to do other than load the car and start the trip. Which will happen tomorrow morning. We hope to find time to update the blog every day- look for the contents note at the top to see if summat new has been added.

Day 1 George to Riebeek-Kasteel

We left George in good spirits. The dogs have been surly and suspicious since the packing started, but we are comfortable that they will find solace with Effa.
The N2 towards Cape Town is for us, a road much traveled, so we did not expect any surprises. The extent and colour of the canola fields, however, delighted and astounded us. Bright swathes of yellow adorned the road on both sides and provided us with a display that made the drive feel much shorter.

We were not alone admiring the aloes at the side of the road:

And when the roadside attractions faded, we kept alert and amused by trying to complete a crossword puzzle Anna found. All in all, we arrived fairly fresh in Riebeek-Kasteel at the 1 Royal Street guest house.
We now have to struggle with one of those existential issues that arise in each married life- where are we going to have dinner tonight? We are spoilt for choice as far as cuisines go: French - le Bouchon Rouge - nope, sounds pretentious and probably overpriced. La Parilla - Mexican right next door, so sounds good The Royal Hotel - oldest hotel in the Western Cape. Might be interesting. The Mexican one is right next door, so that got the nod. Thence we shall go and be back to watch the rugby and tell you about the food.

Back after dinner-
The food was great. Our pics of same are crappy. Maybe we enjoyed the Brink Family Merlot too much.... In any event, for starters we shared fish tacos. Mains for me were a pork belly with garlic mash, a corn rib and green beans. Anna had crispy calamari tentacles with a peri peri mayo. Afters was curros with a chocolate sauce. Here be the tacos, the only pic that is publishable:

We undertake to do better tomorrow. I will take charge of food photography from now onwards. My man can do lots of things well, but drinking wine and taking pics at the same time is not one of them.
After breakfast tomorrow we wend our way to Kamieskroon. (How many people can say that in one breath?)

Day 2 Riebeek-Kasteel to Kamieskroon

The Riebeeck-Kasteel NG Church:

"What on earth has the church to do with today's trip to Kamieskroon?" I hear you asking. It has its role in our stay last night. Beautiful church. Beautiful clock tower. Mit clock. Which chimes every hour on the hour. Not very loudly- townsfolk probably had it muted somewhat. But our guesthouse is located just below the hill on which the church stands so proudly. If you are sort of awake, the 10 chimes at 10pm keeps you awake. Ready for the 11 at 11pm. And so on. Anna was not bothered. Probably because she leads a clean life...The clock fell silent after midnight. Thank goodness....
Breakfast at the guest house was good- 3 courses served with great flair by Antonio- croissants with cheese and jam, muesli with cut fruit and finally a crepe with banana and honey.

The Breakfast room:

After breakfast we set off. The first part of the trip took us through endless farmlands.

The weather was cold, with dramatic cloud formations topping the road stretching out in front of us.

The scenery remained interesting for most of the way. A section between Bitterfontein and Garies was boring- flat and uninteresting for about 60km. For the rest, there was always something to amaze - fairy circles..

Look it up - interesting and unexplained.
Eventually Kamieskroon hove into view. We found the Kamieskroon Hotel, not a difficult feat given that the entire place consists of only a few buildings. The hotel room we were allocated is rather basic, but fine for the purpose. Which is sleeping. We were brought a menu and asked to make a choice. Which we did- Bobotie for me and a chicken kebab for Anna. We were invited to spend time in the lounge where, so were told, a fireplace would ward off the cold. We settled in and set off for the lounge, taking 2 bottles of wine and our Kindles with us. The lounge and dining area turned out to be inviting and cosy. With a fire. Two guests made space for us on a sofa. Wine was poured. It transpired that the two were part of a group of 20 bikers. The rest of the group soon arrived and we were enveloped by a bunch of jovial people. A hour or two later we left for our dinner table, while they all departed for the bar...
Dinner:

The verdict - ok but not great. Anna's portion was far too big.
So- tomorrow. The forecast is for cold - 10 degrees. Some rain fell today and by all indications it would be futile to go flower hunting until the temperature hits 18 degrees plus. Which it is forecast to do on Tuesday. If that holds good, we will settle in front of the fireplace in the lounge, drink coffee, read and hang around for a better day on Tuesday. Time will tell....

Day 3 Kamieskroon

So here we are. At Kamieskroon, the center of all things flowery. The temperature is 10degrees, so we would in any event not have wandered around the countryside trying to spot flowers. The flowers are, so everyone tells us (including Ai), not open at that temp. I had a phlegmy flareup and we decided I need to rest. Which I did. With Anna delivering breakfast and generally fussing about me. That is what I do- he is my man, after all... So the day trundled past. Around 5'ish I felt better and we set off to the hotel lounge. Clutching two bottles of wine. We found ourselves next to Ian and Di and exchanged flower watching tips. Of which we did not have an abundance.
Dinner was served. I had a sirloin steak and Anna grilled calamari. More than acceptable.

Tomorrow we intend seriously searching for flowers. Our journey may take us to Leliesfontein. And even to Skilpad. Time will tell. Stay tuned.

Day 4 Kamieskroon

The daybreak found two bleary-eyed and exhausted Groenies. A wind blew the entire night. Not just a wind, a WIND of formidable proportions. It howled around corners, made the tree outside our room sing a libretto and scraped its branches against the corrugated roof. In short- it had a ball while we could not sleep. The hotel was full, so we could not attempt to swap rooms. Fortunately, we are hardy souls and we endured. While I was in the shower this morning, Anna had a conversation with management. Result:- by the time I was dressed, we were allocated the honeymoon suite. Hah! Stuff like this makes me realise that there are many reasons why I married her. There are times when one needs to exhibit sternness without waving your arms about. He is sometimes too gentle and then, at other times, he waves his arms about. I get better results...
We packed up all our stuff and left in the the corner for the staff to take it later to the ...ahem... honeymoon room. After a so-so breakfast, we left on a determined flower hunt.
The wind was still blowing and temperature down to 10degrees. Nevertheless, our first direction would be the Skilpad area of the Namaqua National Park. Thence we went-along this gravel road for 23km:

So what is so bad about a bit of gravel road, I hear you men mutter. Here's the thing: when you grow older, the parts inside you become increasingly loose from whatever they are attached to. Continuous jarring and bumping as along a corrugated road accelerates that process. Not good. At least we encountered some interesting rock piles along the way:

Arriving at Skilpad, we paid the entry fee and drove the 5km route meant for normal cars. There is another longer 4x4 route. The 5km we drove did not deliver much, flower-wise. This was about the best we saw - sparse and nothing lush and spectacular.

We were puzzled. All the research pointed to an exceptional bloom, especially mid August - mid September. We started worrying that we were early. A quick thought or two and an executive decision was made to go to Springbok. Our digital assistant swore that the Goegap reserve in Springbok is the thing. Only 70km up the R7. We arrived in Springbok and and at Goegap toute de suite. I visited the office to pay the entrance fee and asked the ladies which direction be the flowers. To my utter surprise, I was told that there are no flowers. None. Niks. This was, they said, because of excessive rains in May, which caused the wildflowers to bloom early. Apparently blooming was done a month or two early.That explained a lot- we were not too early, we were bloomingwell too late!
A quick conference and we decided to return to Kamieskroon and from there drive towards Leliefontein where some of our the bikers on day 1 mentioned that some flowers could be seen. So, back to Kamieskroon and off on the bloody gravel to Leliefontein. This road was worse that the Skilpad one, but we set our teeth and soldiered on.
In the end, we saw a few patches of flowers

And some flowers along the roadside. By now we were somewhat miffed. To say the least. Maybe the situation will be better in VanRhynsdorp, where we are booked in tomorrow. We phoned Roché at the guest house. He confirmed our worst fears- VanRhynsdorp is also flowerless, due to early rains. We be buggered. Maybe we did not speak to the right people. Maybe we shoulda.... In any event, we shall contemplate our fate over a glass of wine tonight. While we listen to the wind still doing its best to keep people awake.
We will not report on the dinner- it will be a replay of options from the previous nights.

Day 5 Kamieskroon to VanRhynsdorp

An indaba was held. 100% of eligible voters attended and a copious amount of wine assisted discussions. The poll result was unanimous: lets call it a day- keep one night in Vanrhynsdorp, cancel the rest. Move the stay in Tulbach up two nights to Thursday night. Thus: Kamieskroon to Vanrhynsdorp to Tulbach to George.
Thusly we went down the N7 direction Vanrynsdorp. Nothing new. We were a smidgen early to check in at our guest house and decided to drive to Nieuwoudtville,about a 50k detour, to see what we could see. We saw Nieuwoudtville and regret to report that we are not the better for it. An odd little patch of flowers here and there but nothing to set the blood racing.

We were met at the Mountain View Guest House by the inimitable Roche. Most friendly host who arranged a dinner booking, gifted Anna with two bottles of wine - an Innkeeper personified. We almost felt sorry that, due to the flower thing, we only stayed for one night. Our room- great attention to detail and most welcoming:

We are due to sample the delights offered by the Red Ox steakhouse (I shudder....and on my birthday nogal!) I am sure they will have something non-beef and non-lamb to Anna's taste. Arriving at the Red Ox, we encountered Ian and Di, whom we met a day or so earlier up at Kamieskroon. We joined up and had dinner together. Forgot to take pics. Anna had a chicken schnitzel, pronounced acceptable and I had a sirloin steak as tough as an old piece of leather. So, except for the excellent company and the fact that I had Anna at my side, call the meal a fail. Roche has arranged breakfast for us for tomorrow morning, after which we will set off for Tulbach through the Cedarberg mountains.

Days 6 and 7: Home via Tulbach

Breakfast at the Red Ox, compliments of Roche, and off we went to Tulbach. Despite the disappointment of not seeing the expected flower spectacle, we were determined to make the best of things and enjoy the scenery. Scenery + flowers would have been great, but c'est la vie.....
We thought about veering off the N7 at Clanwilliam and see what the eastern side of the Cedarbergs could offer, but most of that route would be on gravel. Feeling uncertain about road conditions after the May rains, we decided to stick to the N7 and maybe take a short detour at Clanwilliam into the Pakhuis pass to see what we could see. What we saw was magnificent rocky outcrops and formations.

All along the route, we encountered many fruit orchards. A lot of them swathed in shade cloth. According to Google, its protection from the elements apparently results in a large crop increase.

We arrived in Tulbach in good time. A pleasant hotel dating from the 1800's. Our room was spacious, well appointed and comfortable. Dinner was acceptable and we prepared mentally for the last stretch in the morning. We left early and headed for home.
Along the way, we wondered again at the canola fields and the flowering fynbos. Perhaps, in the end, we did see flowers. Just not the ones we thought we would.

Will we do it again? Not chasing flowers, no. We have resigned ourselves that the flower display of Namakwaland is not in our future. But will we tackle another trip in another direction? You betcha!