When I left Durban in 2015 it took me a year to get as far as Cape Town. Last year I rushed things a bit and it took a month to do the same trip with a slightly different route. This time when level 2 restrictions allowed inter-provincial travel I pulled out all the stops and did it in 3 days. Could say I was keen to get back to the life I led before this 10 month break. The reports of the west coast flowers were extremely promising but the canola fields in the Overberg were also looking pretty.
Winter had not yet left the Cape and on my second night at Riebeek the snow fairies visited.
Other spots were snow covered too, but this time with Cape daisies that bear a mouthful of a scientific name - Dimorphotheca pluvialis.
Between Wolseley and the turn off to Bainskloof Pass a liberal dusting still coated the mountain tops......
..........................and a little further along.
On the pass itself, a plethora of purple covered what I assume to be one of the multitude of ericas, though identification is difficult without my fynbos reference book to hand at present.
Puffy clouds dotted the sky but when I stopped to get a shot of a canola field the sun was blotted out by a monster. A few kilometers further, another field was positively gleaming but the road was too low for a panorama, enter Titus the drone! Thanks again to my generous son for an amazing toy.
Finally got the Beast livable and moved into the Ou Skip Resort in Melkbosstrand and it was wonderful to be reunited even though it still bore the scars of the intrusion made during lock down. As I could only get it into the workshop the following week I decided to ride out to Darling and take in some flowers. Fields of arums Zantedeschia aethiopica dotted the landscape most of the way.......
..................and among the sheets of sunflax Heliophila coronopilifolia at the orchid farm ......
.........................were a few gems. This small, about 40 mm diameter, member of the iris family Morea tricolor, which appears to be known as the Cape tulip, is now extinct across most of it's former range.
Have always raved about west coast sunsets, though this one was fairly muted as there was a bank of heavy cloud on the horizon which prevented see the disc sliding into the sea - always a novelty for us east coasters.
There was a large variety of species on display locally such as these Arctotis hirsuta that also seem to be known as Cape daisies but are cream coloured with grey leaves.....................
........and swathes of white, yellow and orange, courtesy of Titus.
The orange bits are apparently Arctotis acaulis, but don't quote me.
While at Bloubergstrand one overcast day I noticed Robbin Island lurking on the horizon and though it was too windy to fly.......................
On a back road outside the town were some undisturbed fields, orange on one side, pink with felicias on the other..........................
.........while in the opposite direction.
The aerial view from Titus shows the full extent.
Back near Melkbos, had to get the drone aloft once more to capture this field, the pink foreground being.....
..........a mass of these daisies with delicately tinted pink tips to the petals, which so far I've completely failed to identify.
As is the case with these mesembrianthemum types growing on the dunes.
Shortly before I left Melkbos this arrived. And you thought the Beast was big, that's a 7 ton Hino with what looks like a whole house attached - was surprised that the top didn't pop open so the helicopter could take off!
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