Namaqualand - More than just Flowers

Spring begins somewhere between August and September.
Picture Gallery

In these sparsely populated driftlands, the back roads wait to be explored. This is best done in a 4x4. These are wild and lonely backroads through the rumpled granite of the Richtersveld. Be warned, this is the great beyond.

Accommodation runs to a self-catering guest cottage or Nama hut camps for the more adventurous. There's always camping but don't forget to make a list. There's a general shop at the park's headquarters at Sendelingsdrift but otherwise, you're on your own.

By Laurianne Claase


Spring begins somewhere between August and September.
Page: 1
North of the South African Riviera of Cape Town, hot, volcanic deserts march down to a cold Atlantic ocean. The barren hills and lava plains erupt with wildflowers for a few frivolous weeks in spring and the muddy largesse of the Orang ...

The red sand sprouts fields of wild flowers.
Page: 2 Goegap Nature Reserve, Springbok, Namaqualand
15 kilometres south-east of Springbok is the 15 000 hectare Hester Malan Wildflower Garden. Named after the wife of one of the apartheid era bureaucrats of the Cape, the reserve was extended in 1990 and also got a new name. Goegap is N ...

Over 4 000 different floral species come into bloom.
Page: 3
The Nama's ancestors were pastoral herdsmen from Namibia who arrived in these dusty lands some two thousand years ago. Unique among those older inhabitants of Southern Africa and unlike the San, the Nama of Namaqualand retain much of t ...

Namaqualand is a flower wonderland.
Page: 4 Port Nolloth, Namaqualand
The intriguing title, 'Where the water took the old man away' was the original Nama name for Port Nolloth whose present name commemorates one Commander Nolloth. Unfortunately, 'the man who determined the depth of the bay' just doesn't ...