Rustic beauty

An outhouse on a farm in the Biedow Valley, Namaqualand, South Africa

For more beautiful scenes around the world, click here

Biking to the Flowers of Namaqualand, South Africa part VI

If you've been following our trip to the Flowers of Namaqualand, please bear with me in the previous and next two posts. We didn't see this part of the flower spectacular while riding the bike. We were travelling through the Biedouw Valley in a double-cab with friends Hilton and Catherine. In my previous post (here) I forgot to mention the area in which we stopped to photograph the swathes of blooms. (Blame it on excitement, or a Senior Moment!) We're in the Biedow Valley here and moving through the colourful carpets of spring flowers. 

To me, a gardener who promotes the use of natural compost, it's fascinating how these plants not only germinate from seed and grow prolifically, but thrive and display such beauty in sandy, rocky soil. A miracle indeed! 

The various flowers above are as follows: the orange, white, yellow and cream blooms are Demorphoteca spp(African Daisy); the purple and white succulents respectively are Mesembryanthemum spp(known as vygies or veld/field sparklers) interspersed with wild grasses and small dusty pink bushes which are part of the fynbos family

Finally Catherine and I had taken dozens of photos of this area and returned to the car and our patiently waiting menfolk. As we continued through the valley the countryside delivered one beautiful palette of colour after the other.

Along this stretch of road we ate the dust of two vehicles riding along in front of us. Eventually Hilton managed to overtake them and we continued on the mountain road.

As we approached a farmhouse and outbuildings surrounded by flowers, I called out to Hilton to please stop. Poor man; he had to get used to my  requests for frequent photo stops!

Three images leading up to the farmhouse surrounded by floral beauty

While we were ooh-ing and aah-ing at this spectacular flower show, a typical Namaqualand scene played out before our eyes. A man cycled past us on the road, turned into the farmroad and rode towards the house. The composition of my photo was perfect but while I tried to get the cyclist in focus, the men shouted for us to jump into the car! As we drove off, I lamented that I'd just missed a beautiful photo op. The men were unsympathetic; they said the cars we'd overtaken, were coming up behind and they didn't want to eat their dust again.

Catherine just smiled and handed me her camera...

A perfectly composed photograph by Catherine Gibbons

A few kilometers before the tarred road which led to Wuppertal , Hilton stopped at a special memorial: The Englishman's grave.

The grave marks the spot where Lieutenant Graham Vinicombe Winchester Clowes of the Gordon Highlanders was killed on a scouting mission in 1901 during the second Boer War. His mother travelled all the way from England to the spot to have the Celtic-cross memorial erected.

And the menfolk stood and chatted...

Biking to the Flowers of Namaqualand Part V

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear! We started off with breakfast at a hotel in town. Catherine and Hilton want to buy a camera like mine, so she practiced with my [older] Canon Powershot.

Catherine took the photo of me, Grant and Hilton as a trial run to a day of photography

I took this photo of Clanwilliam dam lined with holiday homes as we drove past

Hilton took us to Niewoudtville to see a collection of motorbikes and cars in an old garage. When we got there, the owner had gone away for the weekend.

While the men peered through the windows at the display, I snapped the interesting front of the garage

Then it was onto a dirt road into the Flowers proper! Although I took this photo from a fast-moving car you can already see the flowers in the fields along the road

The first of the magnificent flowers also taken from a moving vehicle. In the corner you can see Catherine taking photos

When I downloaded the photos, I was amazed to see how beautifully the photos on my [older] camera came out. Catherine, too, excelled herself as photographer seeing as this was the first time she'd ever used my camera. The next few photos are all by Catherine and perhaps there'll be some afterwards which I missed. However, between us, we took so many photos that I eventually lost track of the rightful owner!

Tah-dah!

More photos by Catherine of more magnificent flowers

And again...

Isn't this a beautiful display?

Catherine's first close-up

And again...

And her piece de resistance!

My first stationary view of the flowers

A capture of field sparklers: purple Mesembryanthemum commonly known in South Africa as vygies

A carpet of beautiful colours, textures, shapes and fragrances

Catherine sizing up her next image!

I wore a purple sweater and jeans that day and Catherine's top was yellow. The men, waiting patiently in the vehicle, said when I lay down to get the angle right and Catherine crouched over a single bloom for a closer image, we were invisible!

 No lack of floral variety!

Note the dry, rocky ground which is home to these beauties

Vygies again, this time close-up

The wildflower phenomenon occurs annually in the Namaqualand and lasts from July to September. This dry, sandy part of Southern Africa bursts into flower and riots of blooms of every shade and hue fills the landscape with rich splendour. At the end of this short season, the show is over, the seeds go underground and wait until next year's spring rains awaken them again.

Note: This was just the first part of our first stop at the flowers. To be continued.

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.