Gannabos

North of Nieuwoudtville there is a tarred road that passes the Doorn River Waterfall. The flowers in these pictures were seen somewhere between the waterfall and the turn-off to Gannabos. Gannabos is halfway between Nieuwoudtville and Loeriesfontein.

While in Nieuwoudtville, a flower map of the surrounding areas was obtained. There were a number of possible flower routes to the north of Nieuwoudtville, and the route passing through the Kokerboom Forest was chosen. After travelling along the road to Loeriesfontein, the turn-off to Gannabos was taken, and not too much later the Kokerboom Forest was seen. The road continued to Naresie, where more flowers were seen. This road then split off in a number of directions; Kleinbegin, Rietfontein, Toren, Groot Toren and Matjiesfontein. These are all well known flower areas but could not be visited in the time available, and the road back to Nieuwoudtville was taken.

The Kokerboom tree is normally seen in northern Namaqaualand and in Namibia. The Kokerboom Forest at Gannabos is the southernmost forest in Africa. The Bushmen used the hollow branches of the tree as quivers to hold their poisoned arrows, hence the name Quiver-tree or Kokerboom.