Walking through the Wild Flowers on the West Coast

Each year, the Cape West Coast puts on one of the most glorious flower shows in the world, and each year I miss it – even though the West Coast National Park, home to the Postberg Flower Reserve, is less than an hour’s drive from Cape Town. I’ll admit this counts as almost criminal negligence on my part.

Fortunately, this year, I got lucky. Very lucky. Not only was I invited to join a group of hikers on the rather exclusive Steenbok Trail (check out 5 of the best hikes to see spring flowers), and not only was it the most gloriously sunny spring day imagineable, but also, according to the group (most of whom have been doing the trail every year for the last 16 years) it was the best showing of wild flowers ever. (Or at least in the last 16 years.)

So, if, like me, you’ve been too lazy or too stupid to take the short drive up the R27 to the West Coast National Park until now, get out there and do it! Today, if possible, because the flowers are at their peak right now. And, if you think you’ve already been there, done that – think again. I’ll bet no matter how seasoned a flower-seasoner you are, this year’s bounty will leave you breathless.

Unfortunately, it’s unlikely you’ll be lucky enough to do the Steenbok Trail this year. It only runs during August and September and bookings open in June. Evidently all the available places are snapped up pretty quickly, so put ‘Book the Steenbok Trail’ into your calendar for 1 June 2013. It’s supposed to be a five hour hike of around 14km, but we somehow walked 17km in over seven hours. It’s an easy walk, however, with only a couple of small hills. Nonetheless, my legs are in agony: I’ve discovered that flower photography involves doing a ridiculous number of squats and pushups (check out these 5 tips for spring flower viewing).

There’s also a two-day Postberg hiking trail, which I’ve now added to my wishlist.

Since you can still cruise around the reserve in your car, there’s no reason to delay your visit until you get a place on one of the trails (although they are by far the best way to experience the reserve). If at all possible, I recommend you visit on a weekday, as there were rather a lot of cars on Sunday, and I’d imagine that sitting in a traffic jam might dampen your feelings of bliss.

These are just a few of the bajillion photos I took on the hike. If you’d like to see more, you can find a larger gallery on alisonwestwood.com.