September 5, 2016
Surf, Cape Gannet, and Wildflowers at Elands Bay, Lamberts Bay, and West Coast National Park, South Africa

I've just completed three days along the west coast of South Africa. I stayed in Lamberts Bay for the first two nights and nearby Elands Bay is a favorite location for afternoon/evening photography. There were lots of wildflowers in the area, but my favorite image is of this wave crashing into the rocks at sunset. The main draw of Lamberts Bay is Bird Island and the Cape Gannet (Morus capensis) colony which is good to photograph in the morning. Here, a gannet is about to land. I had planned to spend three nights in Lamberts Bay, but even four months in advance, I couldn't find reasonable accommodation there for the third night, so I looked for something further south. I settled on Langebaan because the area is another hot spot for wildflowers. I visited West Coast National Park and enjoyed the wildflowers in the Postberg area of the park. In this image, the orange African Daisy or Gousblom (Arctotis hirsuta) is surrounded by the White African Daisy, Cape Rain-Daisy, or Witbotterblom (Dimorphotheca pluvialis), and Blue Daisy or Bloumagriet (Felicia amelloides).

This ends the landscape part of my trip. Now it's back to wildlife with stays in Mountain Zebra and Addo Elephant National Parks.