Spring is lovely all over the world but South Africa has two very special events which take place at this time making it a travel Mecca…. wild flowers and migrating whales.
The wild flower bonanza of the West Coast is a bucket list must see as, especially after winter rainfall, fields and fields of wild flowers burst into glorious bloom.
The West Coast is popular and on the road less traveled is a gem, Velddrif or Velddrift. It is a very good base to explore from, but best of all it retains the feel of an older time, with paint faded fishing boats, old jetties and local fishermen working as they have done for generations. It is also a haven for nature.
Velddrif is at the coastal end of the Beg River, which rises in the Drakenstein Mountains of Franschoek and meanders 294kms to the sea at St Helena Bay. It is also one of the largest estuaries in the country with an area of 61 square kms, and is permanently open. The large floodplains surrounding the middle and upper areas of the estuary, are unique. The Lower Berg River is an important Bird Area (IBA) and has recently received Ramsar status. It is a birders paradise, but even if you are not a birder, the sight of some 30000 cormorants flying away each morning and flying back to roost each evening, is impressive. A huge variety of birds including flamingos, pelicans and the endangered oyster catcher can easily be seen.
The Velddrift jetty for river cruises and 2 of many many bird species to frequent this area.
Velddrif is a 36 minute drive from one of the best places to see the spring flowers en masse. This is in the West Coast National Park in a section called Postberg, which is only open for the flower season and closed to visitors at other times to allow the plants to be undisturbed. There is game as well as flower fields to see. Keep an eye out for zebra, wildebeest, antelope, ostrich, mongoose, rock hyrax, snakes and tortoises. White rain daisy blooms, with their bright white petals and purple centre, can cover large patches of land like snow, and open to the sun from about 10am to 4pm, turning to follow its path through the day. These carpets of daisies are the most prolific flowers in the West Coast National Park. Sporrie are the only blue flowers in the Park, and bloom upright with white centres, turning green fields into swaying lovely seas of blue.
Choose days when the sun is out as, no sun… no show and the petals stay shut. The flowers were early this year, starting in late July and they were spectacular. Every year is different and a call to the West Coast Flower Line (+27 (0)797410113 ) may help you to avoid disappointment.
Veldrif itself has patches of spring flowers and there is a lot besides, to do in the area. It is a wonderful holiday spot in summer, too.
In Cape Town itself, you can see spring flowers at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. Kirstenbosch is widely considered one of the world’s top botanic gardens. It lies sprawled on Table Mountain’s Eastern slopes. Only 36 hectares of the entire 528 hectares are cultivated, the rest is protected natural forest and a concentration of the Cape Floral Kingdom’s fynbos (fine bush). This UNESCO World Heritage-listed kingdom is the smallest of the world’s six floral kingdoms and, with its extraordinarily high diversity of distinctive flora, probably the richest. The spring fynbos is best enjoyed from August to November, so take a stroll through the daisies, watsonias, pincushion proteas and vygies (mesembryanthemums) of every colour and be enchanted.
The second very special South African Spring event, is whale calving!
De Hoop Reserve. One of the best places for land based whale watching.
South Africa is one of the best destinations worldwide for watching whales and dolphins. Although at least 37 species of whales and dolphins can be found in the waters of South Africa, whale watching has traditionally focused on the annual migratory routes of spectacular species such as humpback and southern right whales and the presence of enormous pods of dolphins all year-round provide amazing viewing opportunities both from land and from boats.
Every year, between about July and December, Southern Right whales skirt the coastline as they migrate north to the warm Indian Ocean off the Mozambique coast to calve, mate and socialize in warmer sheltered waters with fairly consistent temperatures and then return south when the calves are big enough, to the nutrient and krill- rich, icy waters of the Antarctic.
Humpback whales are also found along the east coast between June and October. They too, migrate from Antarctica to their breeding grounds in the warmer water of Mozambique, Tanzania and Madagascar. Over recent years since 2011 between October and December, super-groups of humpback whales (20 to 200) have been observed in the coastal region of the Southern Benguela current between St Helena Bay and Cape Point. This is unique as such densely packed feeding individuals is unprecedented in this region.
Bryde’s Whales (pronounced ‘broo-dess’), are our only resident species of an estimated 600 individuals, staying around the South African coastline all year.
The 2 best places to see the whale migration are Walkers Bay, near Hermanus and De Hoop. An annual fun Whale Festival takes place in Hermanus at this time.
De Hoop Nature Reserve is a large conservation area that stretches along the wild, sandy coast with a Marine Protected Area. From the tall dunes at Koppie Alleen you can watch southern right whales and their calves. De Hoop is by far the number one location for land based whale watching.
2023 was a bumper year. “We managed to count 130 whales in Walker Bay (55 were calves)… As expected, …the main concentration of whale was at Koppie Alleen, and no words can adequately describe the incredible experience of seeing such a large gathering of majestic marine mammals in their most vulnerable state, enjoying the protection of the sheltered shoreline…. There were so many whales that counting was an exercise in itself, and just to complicate matters an enormous pod of bottlenose dolphins decided to choose just that moment to charge through the nursery grounds and play with several of the whale calves! The final number was 472 whales (236 where calves) … and another 115 whales (57 calves) counted along the rest of the De Hoop coastline.” – Jean Tresfon, Marine Conservation Photographer.
View West Coast options under Itineraries
