Blossoms and Bones
Susie Cazenove, co-founder
The Cape west coast was a very different place 5 million years ago. Warm and wet with lush riverine forests and savannah, it was home to a multitude of wild animals most of which are now extinct. Elephants with four tusks, bears, sabre-tooth cats, the bear dog, three toed horses, giant pigs and the sivatherium a huge genus of the giraffe with large horns! Most of these animals could not survive the drying out of the land and the fossil deposits near Langebaan, one of the richest in the world, gives us an incredible view of how they once looked. They were discovered through phosphate mining and are now enclosed in a 14-hectare national park where they lie together, massed in what was once a muddy river bank. A visit to the museum and tour of the site is a must for any visitor to the west coast, which, in September, is a truly enchanted place. For miles and miles the valleys and hills are carpeted with a multitude of wild flowers most of which only open in the sunlight making each journey quite chancy.
However, if you give it enough time you will see some spectacular displays as the sun seldom hides for long in South Africa but when it does, there are fossils, cave paintings, delightful fishing villages and some wild and rugged beaches to keep everyone enthralled. I stayed in Darling where the fields and roadsides were full if wild arum lilies for three nights, and knew it was not enough. Next time I shall spend two nights in Darling, visiting the nearby park and Paternoster, book a table in Pieter-Dirk Uys’ cabaret club in the old station for an hilarious evening, then make my way slowly up the coast to Bushman’s Kloof near Clanwilliam to spend 3 nights before going to Springbok for the greatest flower experience of all in the Namaqua National Park. It’s a long journey that can’t be rushed. There will be many stops for the breathtaking views of landscapes painted in the brilliant colours of Monet’s summer garden from horizon to horizon. The spectacle is very short, late August to late September and then it is all over for another year.
