We got up at 7 and could see a thick layer of fog along the coast with hill tops poking through. Here is it clear and should be a fine day in the 70s. We drove to the main house for breakfast and had good variety of cold meats, cheeses, fruits, muffins and jams. We talked to the manager about where the best flowers are likely to be and she gave us map. We left the house and the Rhodesian Ridgeback enthusiastically dashed up to Bob and gnawed his hand. The dog is only a large puppy and meant no harm but he is very large and doesn't know his own strength, He needs Mary M to set him straight!
We drove back to Springbok on the R355 and continued a few miles to the Goegap Nature Preserve where we signed in and paid our fee, then took our papers and drove a few feet to the entrance kiosk where we presented our papers and again filled out sheets of essentially duplicate information to finally be allowed in!
As we don't have a 4x4 we were limited to the 13 kilometer tourist route in this large preserve, but it turned out to be spectacular and with all our stops took us a couple of hours. We traveled through a wide valley surrounded by rocky small mountains. We could see enormous patches of yellow and then streaks of purple and orange. Pied crows sat in the middle of the colorful flowers and then we saw some gemsboks grazing and resting like Ferdinand the Bull! We continued on and saw an entire valley filed with millions of white flowers. It was really extraordinary!
Bob wanted to follow the R355 as it leads to some good birding roads. The entire way was on good gravel roads but it went on for over 100 miles through beautiful valleys, more Quiver trees, tiny towns, but few birds.
We finally reached the N7, the national highway from Cape Town to Namibia, at Kamieskroon and got back to Naries by 5:45, too late for sundowners, but fortunately our mini-bar is well-stocked and reasonably priced, so I had a gin & tonic before cleaning up for dinner. Smoked salmon salad, beef with wine sauce and Amarula ice cream for dessert.
Wow, that gemsbok in the field of flowers is amazing! Not to mention the odd bird in the flower field --- the pied crow was also neat.
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