THE GREAT FLOWER SAFARI

In late March, precisely 21 days after the first winter rains fell in the Hantam, reports of a bountiful bloom of Brunsvigia bosmaniae beckoned me north from Cape Town to the town of Nieuwoudtville. Even from a distance, the cloaks of pink flowers could be seen fringing the edges of the dolerite koppies. Tens of thousands of flowers contrasted brightly with the granitecoloured sands and for me, it was a breathtaking sight – every bit as powerful as seeing the wildebeest migration or watching gorillas in the forests of Uganda. And amazingly, there was almost no one else there. The Brunsvigia explosion had, for some reason, gone off virtually without witnesses.

I was reminded then that the Cape is a real treasure trove of flowers – and itʼs not only the spring flowers of Namaqualand that are the attractions. All the way from the Orange