Plan your Cape Town visit between August and September as the Cape's West Coast wild flowers come into bloom. This colorful spectacular has drawn visitors to the area for generations. The Namaqualand area was once home to the San Bushman and in the Bushman’s Kloof Nature Reserve you can view their ancient rock art. Both these areas and the Richtersveld have spectacular mountains and feature some of the most stunning rock formations.

The West Coast of South Africa, stretching from Cape Town right up to the border of Namibia, is an often overlooked part of the country.

Between the mountains of the Western Cape and the sea is a sandy, low lying plain stretching from the Cape flats along the western coast line to Langebaan. The region is spacious and airy with sandy beaches, quaint fishing villages and many interesting relics of the pioneering past.

The spring flower route of the West Coast has a worldwide reputation. The area receives little rain throughout the year but after winter rains; our landscape becomes a carpet of wild flowers with vibrant swathes of gousblomme and vygies. The area boasts an exceptional diversity of wild flower species due to the differences in topography, from the dry Karoo through to the wetter marsh areas of the Oliphants River and the Sandveld coast.

Nieuwoudtville is situated at the top of the Bokkeveld mountains, surrounded within a radius of 15 miles by four different vegetation areas: the Hantam, Bushmanland, the Knersvlakte and Namaqualand.

However, within another 20km, it changes to succulent- Karoo. The spring flowers include many rare bulbs unique to the area and draw scientists and visitors from all over the world every year.

The flower season peaks between early August and late September and its delights depend on the winter rains. Certain species are found nowhere else in the world such as the yellow Leucospermum reflexum, the Snow Protea (protea cryophylla), blue Lachanaea filamentosa, yellow sparaxis, pink Cyanella alba and the Clanwilliam Cedar (widdringtonia cedarbergensis). Our delicious healthy Rooibos tea is distributed all over the world. Every year about 350 species from 32 families are exhibited in their typical setting at the fascinating Clanwilliam Wild Flower show with their botanical, as well as their very descriptive tongue-twisting local given names.

• Postberg Nature Reserve – West Coast National Park (Day 1)
• Skilpad Nature Reserve in Kamieskroon ( Day 2)
• Hester Malan Wildflower Garden and Goegab Nature Reserve in Springbok (Day 3)
• Ramskop Wild Flower Garden in Clanwilliam (Day 4)
• Karukareb Nature Reserve in the Cedarberg (Day 5)

Indigenous wildlife en route including klipspringers, grey rhebok steenbok, rock hyrax and the elsive Cape Mountain leopard. Birdwatchers will not be disappointed with the most popular birdwatching spots being the Cederberg Wilderness Reserve, Lamberts Bay, Verlorenvlei and Kranskloof.