Thursday, February 18, 2010

On the Road: Namibia - Cape Town

Two years ago, on a road-trip to Cape Town, South Africa we passed though Namaqualand in the Northern Cape Province.

Namaqualand is a winter rainfall region and, depending on the rainfall pattern, usually bursts into a colorful display of wildflowers, transforming the usually drab landscape and attracting a large number of visitors to the area.

We caught the beginning of the flowering season and at one spot, out-of-the-blue, came upon this bright orange field of wildflowers. It seemed strange that they were concentrated on one particular patch of previously cultivated ground. I wonder what causes this?





The next two pics were taken at Kamieskroon, a small one-horse town. It had a wall-to-wall carpet of flowers and the pics don't really capture the true beauty of the spectacle. The air was also scented with an intoxicating herbal odor from the plants.




The last pics are of two of the many varieties of flowering plants to be found here.





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6 comments:

  1. what strange delights nature yields to our eyes :)

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  2. The colours are so vibrant, especially to those of us in britland suffering from severe deprivation of sunlight!

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  3. I hear you Dave ... my daughter is experiencing her first English winter in London and she's feeling really homesick right now ...

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  4. She has my sympathy, this winter has been the crappiest for some years...

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  5. Thank you, for being there and sharing it with us.

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