Fields of gold

Continuing on our journey we made for Matjesfontein, a local farmstall famous not only for its edibles and old sandstone buildings, but for the spectacular fields of flowers surrounding it.  The first structure you notice before entering the gates is the ubiquitous windpump, a feature of all South African farms in the low rainfall and arid areas of the country.

  
The flowers seem a little insignificant at first until you get out your car and see the drifts of a bulb popularly called katstert or cat's tail.  You lie down on the ground (with great difficulty) and take a pic and then get totally carried away by the dazzling cadmium yellow blooms gently moving against the backdrop of the deep blue African sky.

 

Next, you really start looking at all the small beauties hidden below the grass.  Every flower has its own particular variety of pollinating beetle which is attracted only to that flower, either by its colour, markings or smell.

And then there are the bold, flamboyant beauties which do no hiding at all.