Smell the wildflowers of Namaqua

The Namaqua National Park lies within this vast landscape, 495 kilometres from Cape Town, and close to the little town of Kamieskroon, just off the N7 route to Namibia. Most of the year, the isolated region known as Little Namaqualand is arid, an apparently sunbaked wasteland in South Africa's Northern Cape. However, during a brief period in July, when winter rains begin to fall, the landscape explodes with billions of blooms. Endless carpets of flowers of various colors cover its varied geography, which ranges from deserty plains to rich valleys to towering mountains.

But it is the sheer diversity of flowers that truly distinguishes this show; over 3500 species bloom here, with more than half of them being rare or endemic, meaning they exist nowhere else on Earth. The Arctotis, often known as the African daisy, is the most well-known. Carpobrotus, often known as pigface, crawls along the ground and shines with fiery yellow and orange flowers.

Richtersveld, with its yawning canyons and jagged mountains as a backdrop; Skilpad Wildflower Preserve west of Kamieskroon, part of the larger Namaqua National Park, a fantastic spot to gaze at the famed Nama daisies; and the 14,973-hectare (37,000-acre) Goegap Nature Reserve outside Springbok, with 600 indigenous plant species. Accommodations in the park (mainly campsites and chalets) are in great demand during this brief flowering season. Either book reservations as soon as they open (typically 11 months in advance), or you may find somewhere to stay in the adjacent towns of Kamieskroon and Garies.