Part 2: West Coast Wild Flowers!!!

So you came back? I am so glad!
Welcome!

It's been a long week of deciding which photo's to chose, crop, edit and showcase on my blog! So many to choose from!

Thank goodness for digital camera's these days!

After our delightful breakfast  , I went exploring in our caravan park and gasped with sheer delight as this patch of glorified weeds. With a few wild flowers thrown in!

Hubby took this photo of me, I was trying so hard to keep my eyes open as I was facing the sun! (as the flowers face the sun too!)

 

Following the thundering sound of the waves.... squealing a bit at this point coming across this natural arch and seeing those wooden steps..Shall we go up them???

Come on then...wait...spot the pretty little flowers growing alongside the steps! (must stop to take a few pics of that!)

Coming up over the tops of the steps I am hit by a blast of air so cold it literally took my breath away and I found myself opening and closing my mouth like a fish out of water!!  It took me a minute to gain my breath, balance and steel myself against the icy winds coming off that sea!

 

Here you can see the rain clouds threatening ominously in the distance...(go away!!!) A very pebbly, shell-y kind of beach. Nice for a beach comber like me, but not nice if you want to suntan! (me thinks)

After my hands were frozen numb, I scuttled back down the steps, to the sheltered protection of the campsite. Wow! I didn't realize just how much protection being behind the sand dunes offered the campers until I was out there on top of the sand dunes!! It was different weather back at camp!

We  then set off for the day. We headed out to the West Coast National Park.
It's a slow drive as you wind and twist your way around the coastal road that cuts through some lovely wild bushland. I sat on the edge of my seat, eagerly anticipating my first viewing of a patch of wild flowers growing next to the side of the road. Minutes passed and just as I was beginning to loose hope...we saw our first patch!

It was actually bigger than this patch in the photo shows! But I wanted to show a close up of what the flowers were. Such a pretty pastel shade of peach mixed in with some blues and purples.

Close up, they are such a pretty little pattern.

Driving through the park was unbelievable. We stopped often to take photo's and just breathe in the air! So heavy with all the Spring Fragrance!

I just love the color combinations...here we have yellow, orange and white daisies.

Patches of predominately white..

Then blasts of colorful patches like these...

A bit of purple thrown in just to break the sunshine colors!

Just look at their happy little faces! :)

 Wearing gum boots as the ground was still quite mooshy and mushy after all the rain we have had.

Coming to a field like this...It is just amazing...

Flowers as far as the eye can see...I don't think I have ever seen a more beautiful sight...

See those bluish-purple flowers glistening in the distance?...

 Here they are close up.

Driving along the gravel roads with these gorgeous borders...

 Taking a moment to lie on a rock, enjoying the view, breathing in the heady scent...

Okay..why not...just a few more hundred snaps...

We drove right to the top of the hills and there, got out to take a short walk .....

 

to this stunning view...(and yes, the sea REALLY was that color!)

 We also went down to the Bay. What a drop-dead gorgeous bay. I had to remind myself I wasn't on some exotic island, half expecting someone to walk on over and hand me a cocktail!

 Perfect glassy, smooth water...sigh...

 We found some teeny tiny (dead) crabs...so cute. My daughter collected a whole lot...

 Wow....such a perfect color, a perfect place.

Oh well,..snapping back to reality...Our beautiful day was long and lovely spent in the park which also contained toilets, refreshment stations too along the way. I also took with strawberries, chocolate and snacks for the car which didn't last long! It was late by now, were were all flowered-out, tired and hungry and drove
to a nearby town to get a snack before heading back to camp.

Driftwoods...
We shared a large plate of yummy chips;  avo, biltong and garlic pita bread and a small pizza....oh so yum...

 We enjoyed looking out at the sea.

Being Still too cold to sit outside and light a fire, we snuggled up in the caravan and I warmed up a lovely Indian butter curry (courtesy of woolworths!)For hubby and I and spaghetti  for the kids. Yum.....

A game of scrabble and to bed...

Join me on Monday for Part 3 of our lovely weekend and come and see a "Darling" little town!
See you then!

Part 1: West Coast Caravan Trip

Hello!
So nice of you to pop in...

I am super excited to share these photos with you lovelies. This past weekend was really exciting!


♥DAY ONE: FRIDAY♥

We had so much snow covering our mountains, it looked like we were in a different country! It was breathtakingly beautiful. I was on the way to take my kids to school, but rushed home to fetch my camera! (naughty!) Dropped the kids off and set off on my mission! The sky was clear but I knew rain was on the way and I wanted to beat it! (seems like a lot of people had the same idea!).

 

After some somewhat dismal attempts I zoomed off to our local nature reserve to see if I could get some better shots. It was freezing! When I Say freezing, I mean so cold that as I walked up the mountain my nose was going numb and my hands were freezing to my camera!

It was good I went when I did, as a mere two hours later the rain came and the clouds covered the glorious view!  Very guiltily I realized I had used up two hours of what was supposed to be packing and getting ready as we were going away after the kids finished school! The rest of the day was a mad rushed blur- shopping, ironing, packing, quick cleaning, sorting. Finally we left (much later than intended)

We got to our destination at roughly 7:30pm. Yzerfontein. Along the West Coast of South Africa.
I have never been up the West Coast, so it was something new for me (and our kids) although hubby has been that way quite a few times for work. We stayed at the municipal caravan park. We got there after dark, so really couldn't see much of anything.

It was raining and cold and fortunately we had decided to leave our big tent behind as we knew we would out and about for most of the time over the weekend.
So it was just a matter of sorting out inside the caravan. Made the Beds, cups of tea, a bit of reading and then it was lights out.

::Caravan holidays are my favorite times. If I could take all my best memories- It would be to take all our caravan weekends and holidays, roll them all into one book and say "There! These are my best memories!" There is just something comforting, cozy, homely, nostalgic and magical about camping. I still remember our first caravan trip my daughter was only just on two. So it's been a good 8 years now::

♥DAY TWO: SATURDAY♥

Prologue...During the week, I decided to made covers for the cushions in the caravan. I used a duvet cover that a friend of mine bought for me a couple of years ago, but never really utilized due to the large sizing! It was just enough to make the 4 cushion covers (with zips from the old covers!) quickly and easily. I did it over the course of two mornings.
So here are some photo's of them...

Made some little patchwork cushions too.

 I still want to cover the back wall with vintage wall paper blocks and make frills for the bottom of the benches.

Yzerfontein is a little coastal town. I love coastal town's. I love the sea, swimming in the sea, beach combing, I love the sound of the waves, the smell of the salty air. I just love it all. We live very near to the sea ourselves, only about a 10 minute drive, so it seems quite odd that I should find holidaying near the sea such a treat! But yet I do!

Anyway...the night was quite odd. The rain continued unabated and the wind lashed on relentlessly which made the sound of the crashing waves just the other side of the dune we were nicely sheltered behind, sound even louder! I woke up a few times, being unaccustomed to the noise!
Funny that I woke up at 6am, my usual week-day time! Very annoyed with myself and willing sleep to take over again! But the seagulls and other bird life would hear nothing of it!

After a lovely hot shower in some very clean and well-maintained ablutions, hubby made a delicious breakfast as is our usual holiday tradition. Eggs, bacon, tomato, and of course a strong cup of filter coffee!
mmmmm . No morning is complete without coffee...

There is my little lady tucked up in a crochet blanket I made. I never did show case it! (oops!) But I finally finished it. Although I am thinking of adding a pretty border on it. Maybe a shell edging...

mmm...smell that bacon? It was g-g-g-g-goood!!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the second part of my trip, which includes the wild flowers we saw (absolutely stunning)...Join me tomorrow won't you?