An annual harbinger of Spring, the carpets of flowers that decorate the West Coast (usually from late July/August onward, depending on the weather) are really special, beautiful and always worth visiting. I spent some time in Langebaan and Saldanha last week doing just that…
When I was a kid my family owned a house in Langebaan and we’d often spend weekends up there. So I remember the place well…except that it’s changed a hell of a lot in the 19 or so years since we sold the house. Going back was strange – if I’d been blindfolded and dropped in the centre of the town I’d have no idea where I was. Some things are the same, but the most obvious change is that the sleepy village of my memories is now bursting with houses and shops.
Our old house is still standing, unchanged except for the garden and a small fence around its perimeter. Everything’s bigger when you’re 5 years old, but even so, what I remember most about the place, the sprawling, open space between our house and the neighbours, is gone…and looking at the amount of buildings crammed in everywhere made me feel quite claustrophobic.
There are open plots for sale all over the place – and right now they’re all covered in daisies, which is sad, as most of the houses I saw seemed to choose their own garden plants and very few seemed to embrace the indigenous ones surrounding them (one house was amazing though and had a whole yard filled with daisies, it was wonderful).
The weather was lovely and, rarely, not windy (another thing that sticks in my memory is hot, windy summers…). The beach was beautiful and very quiet.
The next day’s destination was the Postberg section of the West Coast National Park, (I went last year but did so a little late in the season – it’s open now until the end of September and is so worth a visit) via Saldanha…
I remember Saldanha from years back too, we used to go to the beach there quite often. Stopping to look at the steelworks I found my only souvenir of the trip: a small skull on the side of the road. I think it belonged to a duiker or some other little bokkie…
After Saldanha it was full steam ahead to the West Coast National Park, via the Langebaan entrance. The hills leaving Langebaan were covered in the most beautiful flowers; cars stopped and onlookers oohed and aahed, I even saw two burly bikers step off their bikes and smile at the flowers. One of them even said ‘Sjoe maar dis beautiful’. And they really were beautiful.
Inside the park the flowers weren’t as spectacular, but there was still loads of beautiful things to see, including many birds and loads of tortoises. The view from the Seeberg lookout was also lovely; according to the info brochure you can see everything in the park from up there.
In Postberg there were flowers a-plenty. Depending on the angle of the sun the view in the rearview mirror was sometimes even better than out of the side windows.
As the sun got lower it was time to start heading back home. On the way out we watched some epic crashing waves at one of the Atlantic lookouts, (a sharp contrast to the still and idyllic lagoon on the other side) gaped at the postcard-perfect Kraal Bay and Preekstool beaches and wandered around the beautiful Geelbek restaurant.
Postberg is open until the end of September and the flowers are all the place. Nearby Darling and Mamre will have their flower celebrations (fairs, shows etc.) in early September.
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West Coast National Park | Postberg area | Langebaan tourism | West Coast
