Wild flowers

 

Yesterday was just amazing. We drove out west to the West Coast Nature Reserve to see the flowers that appear in this part of South Africa as if by magic every spring. I have always wanted to do this, so it was a real treat. 

The reserve is on the Atlantic side of the Cape so is very different to the previous coastal photos I took at Hermanus, on the Pacific side. Although that was a rough day at sea, and yesterday a particularly calm sunny one, the Atlantic side tends to be wilder and more rugged. In any case, it was stunning. 

In the reserve we saw zebra, buck (various local deer), bright lime green weaver birds, huge yellow-billed kites, flamingoes, a snake, and tortoises all going about their normal business in the wild. It was beautiful. And the flowers were just incredible. I don't know how many times I said 'lovely', but it was a lot. Swathes of colour greeted us from the very beginning of our drive, and in many places it looked like someone had sprinkled confetti all over the fields. Many of the daisies I remember from our garden when I was little, my Mum must have brought seeds over when we moved to England, and it was so sweet to see them again.