Nieuwoudtville

Just a short distance from the top of the Vanrhyn's Pass lies the town of Nieuwoudtville, on the "Flower Route". The district has a number of interesting areas, covered in some of the other pages. The photographs on this page were taken at the Nieuwoudtville Wild Flower Reserve, less than a mile outside of the town.

Nieuwoudtville lies at the top of the Bokkeveld mountains, surrounded within a radius of 15 miles by four different vegetation areas: the Hantam, Bushmanland, the Knersvlakte and Namaqualand. On first leaving the top of the Vanrhyn's Pass, the vegetation changes to Cape Fynbos. However, within another 12 miles, it changes to succulent-Karoo. Consequently, Nieuwoudtville has a wide variety of flora, of which over 300 species and 199 genera are preserved in the Nieuwoudtville Wild Flower Reserve. The reserve was founded in 1974 and includes two vegetation types; renosterveld and dolorite outcrop. The spring flowers include many rare bulbs unique to the area and the reserve is visited by scientists from all over the world. It is also called "The Bulb Kingdom of the World".

Other pages about Nieuwoudtville included in this site: The Doorn River Waterfall, the area near Glen Lyon, the Hantam, and Gannabos.