The drive to the border with South Africa of 300 kms was over wide open plains with the road stretching out in front of us to the horizon. These virtually empty, straight roads of Southern Africa have definitely been one of the things we will remember from the tour.
We crossed into South Africa at the Orange River. It was interesting to see that the hills on the banks of the river were the same colour as the sand in the Namibian dunes. We were hundreds of kilometres to the south of the dunes and now we could see the source of all that sand.
The Orange River at the border between Namibia and South Africa
Once back in South Africa we had one more place of interest to see before our overnight stop at Vrenendal, the Namaqaland National Park. This park is famous for the wild flowers that bloom in the spring. We were not to be disappointed. Our first view of the flowers were patches of orange and yellow flowers alongside the road. But nothing could prepare you for the blaze or orange that carpeted large fields in the park. The predominate colour from afar was orange, but as you got closer yellow, white and blue flowers could be seen.
The spring flowers in Namaqaland National Park, Western Cape, South Africa
It was a wonderful sight. We took the 7 kms drive through the southern end of the park. Afterwards we learnt from other members of the tour, who had driven from the northern park entrance, that the southern area of the park was by far the best.
We had a very good snack lunch in the park and then drove the final 200 kms to our hotel arriving at 5 pm.
We have decided to drive directly to Cape Town tomorrow rather than staying with the tour who will stop for the night in the citrus capital of South Africa, Ceres. This will give us an extra day to see Cape Town which we lost at the beginning of the tour due to the SAA strike.
It will be sad to be on our last day of driving. We have now covered 9,920 kms in twenty-six days, much of it tough, but all of it the greatest of fun.
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