The Hantam botanical gardens are found just outside the extremely sleepy town of Nieuwoudtville. We visited the area in mid September in order to see the flowers. Unfortunately we did not get to see the flowers at their best although the flowers were still amazing.
The Botanical garden is 6500 hectares. The land was once the farm of the late Neil MacGregor, who took down all internal fences and opened the area to his livestock . The livestock pruned the plants, ate the dry residue and trampled the seeds. Niel was rewarded with the flowering of an extraordinary biodiversity, the sheep also flourished, botanists came to visit, and tourists started to arrive. Neil’s Flower Bus tours were world famous (karoospace.co.za).
Nieuwoudtville is known as the bulb capital of the world. The town is on the plateau above the Bokkeveld mountains of the Northern Cape. The town does not have much to offer and the petrol station is only open for certain hours in the day, as discussed in Striated Skies No.37.
One piece of advice I can give is know what you want to see and explore without a time limit. going up for a weekend is not enough time and makes the trip frustrating.
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