Cape Town → Cederberg → Namaqualand loop
Here are the 14 stories you’ll meet on this journey. The history, culture and nature commentary narrated by the GPS audio guide can be read here in advance.
Wildflower season briefing
To see the wildflowers properly, remember just these three thingsBriefing before you set off
This route is an easy loop with no malaria, and most of it can be driven in a 2WD. But to see the flowers properly, you need a few tips. First, the wildflowers are most fully open between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. On cloudy days they stay closed altogether, so plan to travel during the middle of sunny days. Second, early in the season the flowers start near Cape Town, then spread north into Namaqualand as the season progresses. The peak is from mid-August to early September. Third, your direction of travel matters too. The flowers always face the sun, so it’s much better to view them while driving from north to south. And remember: a clear day right after rain is the very best day for flower-watching.
Cederberg
A tree that gave the mountains their name — now close to extinction
The name of these mountains, ‘Cederberg’, means ‘cedar mountain’. It comes from the Clanwilliam cedar, a species that grows only in this mountain range. But between the 19th and 20th centuries, felling for timber reduced the tree drastically, and now the very tree the mountains are named after has become endangered. Each cedar you pass as you climb is one of the last traces of a forest that once filled this area.
An arch carved by the wind over tens of thousands of years
This arch isn’t a man-made structure. It’s a natural arch carved out of sandstone by tens of thousands of years of weathering by wind and rain. It’s still slowly changing shape, so what you see now may take another form thousands of years from now.
Clanwilliam
A herbal tea that became a global industry
Rooibos grows wild only in the Cederberg mountains surrounding Clanwilliam. For a long time the indigenous people and early settlers simply brewed it as a local herbal tea, but when commercial cultivation and processing began in the 20th century, Clanwilliam became the centre of the world’s rooibos tea industry. A plant that once grew wild in just one region is now a drink on supermarket shelves all over the world.
Springbok
The miners who came from Cornwall
Take a look at this dry desert area you’re passing through, around Springbok and Okiep. Today it looks like nothing but barren plains, but in the 19th century, when a copper-mining boom hit the area, it was a completely different scene. Skilled miners from Cornwall in England, whose families had mined for generations, came all the way to this desert on the other side of the world, nicknamed ‘Cousin Jacks’. After months at sea, they transplanted the mining techniques they knew straight into this unfamiliar land. And curiously, traces of them remain. Even today, some local family surnames reveal Cornish ancestry. The culture of an English country village was transplanted into the middle of an African desert. Quite a strange and fascinating combination when you think about it, isn’t it?
The vanished springbok migration
The name of this town, Springbok, actually comes from an antelope. Until the 19th century, a spectacle known as ‘trekbokking’ often unfolded in this area: herds of springbok hundreds of thousands strong crossing these plains over several days. The scale was said to be almost unimaginable. But you can’t see such migrations any more. As fences dividing farms went up everywhere and uncontrolled hunting continued, the spectacle vanished completely. All that’s left to us is a town named after the antelope. The tide of life that once filled the land now survives only in a place name.
Namaqualand
Halfmens — the legend of the “half-human” succulent
Have you noticed trees out the window that seem to lean their heads to one side? This plant is the ‘halfmens’ — meaning ‘half-human’ — a succulent found only in this region. According to Nama legend, long ago there were people who fled their northern homeland southwards to escape war and drought. Taking pity on them, the gods turned them into beings that were half human, half plant — and that’s the halfmens. That’s why, they say, this plant always grows with its head — the tip of its stem — tilted to the north, towards the homeland they lost.
The Richtersveld — a nomadic herding culture that continues today
North of Namaqualand lies a region called the Richtersveld, a very special place listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But the reason for its listing is a little unusual. It wasn’t for grand scenery — it was because the way of life of the Nama people, who have herded sheep and goats and moved with the seasons in the same way for centuries, was recognised as a living heritage in itself. Portable tortoise-shell-shaped dwellings called ‘|haru oms’ are still in actual use today.
Goegap Nature Reserve
A granite garden where animals lost to hunting have returned
The Goegap area was once land where antelope such as springbok and gemsbok had dwindled because of uncontrolled hunting. After it was declared a reserve in the 1970s, about 45 species of mammals re-established themselves on this dry land between the granite peaks. It’s a small but clear example of recovery: an ecosystem damaged by people, restored by people through protection.
The ‘half-human’ plant that always leans its head to the north
Here in Goegap, too, grows the ‘halfmens’ — the ‘half-human’ succulent found all over Namaqualand. According to Nama legend, it’s the form taken by people who fled their homeland to escape war and drought, and whom the gods, out of pity, turned half human and half plant. That’s why, it’s said, this plant always grows with its head leaning north, towards the homeland they lost.
Skilpad (Namaqua National Park)
One basin that turns the desert into a flower garden
Skilpad is a reserve set up by WWF in 1988 specifically to conserve Namaqualand’s floral kingdom. The reason it reliably puts on an especially spectacular flower display, even within Namaqualand, lies in its landform. Its basin shape traps the cold sea mist rolling in from the Atlantic, so it holds moisture far more reliably than elsewhere. Within an equally dry Namaqualand, this one basin is the secret behind the most dazzling carpet of flowers every year.
The desert with the most diverse plant life
It’s easy to assume deserts have little plant diversity, but this region is the opposite. Part of a unique biome called the ‘Succulent Karoo’, this land is counted as having the most diverse desert flora on Earth. Land that looks dry and barren actually holds more varied life than any other desert in the world.
Hondeklip Bay
The name ‘Hondeklip’ — and the harbour that disappeared
The name of this village, ‘Hondeklip’, means ‘dog stone’ in Dutch/Afrikaans — it’s said to come from a rock on the shore that resembles a dog. In the early 20th century, with the diamond-mining boom, this small bay once flourished as a busy harbour, but when the deposits moved elsewhere it quickly went back to being the quiet fishing village you see now. This peaceful coastline keeps almost no trace of the busy harbour it once was.
Richtersveld
Two countries’ parks on either side of one river become one
Across this river is Namibia. The Richtersveld faces Namibia’s Ai-Ais Hot Springs reserve across the Orange River. In 2003 the two countries worked together to merge them into a single transfrontier park. A pontoon on the river is the only link between the two sections, and it often stops running depending on the water level. So although the two countries have been joined into one park, actually crossing is still not so easy.
Drive this road yourself
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