One of the places I was looking forward to seeing while in South Africa is the Namaqua National Park. In the spring, this park gets an explosion of flowers. Orange, yellow, red... the multicolor carpet lays in front of your eyes as far as you can see.
flowers in Namaqua
We knew that we might be a little bit early for the flower season but we decided to cross the park nonetheless, it was more or less in the general direction that we were traveling. Little did we know that not only would we see plenty of flowers but that we were in for a little adventure that day as well!
flowers in Namaqua
We had high hopes that the village at the entrance of the park, Sebasfontein, would have some gas. According to our map, Sebasfontein was just as big as some other villages we came across... no reason for it not to have gas. Our main tank ran out before even getting to the village and so we had to start using our jerry can supply.
A few shacks to the left, severals houses to the right, that was the extend of Sebasfontein. The only remnants of the gas station were the pumps... the building had been transformed into the post office decades ago. It was going to be very tight to cross the park and make it to the next town. Now if only we could figure out which direction to drive!
entering Namaqua
At entrance gate, a board simply told us that we were entering the park, no park entrance booth or anything that would indicate the roads inside the park, what to look for or the different types of flowers.
We entered the park from the South gate and there were no flowers in sight. But the landscape was beautiful and we had a nice drive. The park looked very desolated; we never crossed another vehicle. Further along the road, some flowers started appearing. At first, it's was a few patches here and there; then, it felt like after every turn, the flower patches grew. More and more flowers covered the ground to the point where we could not see the ground anymore!
driving through Namaqua
The road we were following became rougher and and more remote. The road deteriorated to such an extent that Dan had to put the truck in 4x4. It was slow going; and were we even on the right road? The gas gauge precariously bounced around on E; Dan didn't think we would make it.
Finally the main road. No sooner did we get back onto the N7 and the truck started to sputter. Really out of gas this time as all the jerry cans were empty...