West Coast Accommodation

The West Coast is an acquired taste. The vegetation is subdued, the sky incredibly wide and the sea very often a dead calm expanse of cerulean blue. But sometimes, of course, it's an angry grey expanse of snarling and crashing breakers. But change is the only certainty. In spring, the somewhat monochromatic landscape explodes into a riot of colour. In small hollows between the dunes bright blue heliophilas nod on slender stalks as they turn towards the sun, and fields of orange, white, yellow and purple daisies shimmer in the heat as far as the eye can see.

The West Coast National Park is a great place to see the flowers, either by car, on foot, or by bicycle. The Cape Columbine Nature Reserve, near the small town of Paternoster, is also a floral paradise but it's better known for its rocky shoreline with numerous sheltered coves, so it's a very popular sea kayaking area.

But there are loads of other places to see the flowers. The small town of Darling is well known for its fabulous bulbs, annual flower show and as the home of the wildly creative Pieter Dirk Uys who has catalysed the town's metamorphosis from sleepy hollow to a vibrant cultural centre.