flowers | From the Pen of ...

Written by Nina Ganci

Finally, I went on another trip. This time 3 hours or 300kms away. Nieuwoudtville to view the spring flowers.

I arrived on Saturday morning and left on Monday morning.

South Africa is filled with ‘dorpies’ (little towns), more of a collection of 10 houses, an NG Church (a must in all dorpies), and a few shops. These one-horse towns are all the same. The preverbal horse has either run away or been buried and forgotten many moons ago.

Nieuwoudtville falls in this category. I doubt the ‘horse’ even lived there!!

This ‘dorpie’ is a charming peaceful town, that started in the late 1800s. It is famous for its flowers in spring. Known as the capital of bulbs. People flock from far afield to view the enormous variety of flowers and blooms.

There is just one tarred road that runs through this dorpie; all other roads are gravel, with only 1 stop sign in the whole dorpie.

The original stone houses have been converted to one of the 2 restaurants or one of the 3 B&B found in town. There is a trading type shop (that is closed on weekends – so did not manage to explore) plus 1 local ‘café’ that sells basic foods – bread, milk etc. I found 2 campsites in town and sheep fields.

As to the petrol station – I have no words. Please note on the photo their trading hours. This I discovered on Sunday at 10am.

Once I got over the ‘shock’ of not being able to fill my car, I met the friendliest and most helpful people you will ever find.

The flowers in town were magnificent and well worth the trip. The 4 nature reserves were overflowing with so many varieties of flowers it was breathtaking indeed. With so many flowers scattered everywhere, one forgets you are in the Karoo (semi-desert). The landscape is forever changing. God sure spilt some seeds in Nieuwoudtville!