Hiking in the West Coast National Park

 

Hiking in the West Coast National Park, Postberg reserve is awesome. If you a keen hiker get a group together and go, head up the R27 going north- way up the West Coast road.

The Postberg Reserve is only open to the public during August and September. After the San Park official talked us through the rules and regulations and mentioning that the walk would take roughly 4 hours we were on our way.  Excitement gripped our group when he mentioned that we would spot lots of wildlife. Off we went and almost immediately we came across 2 tortoises, 1 sadly just an empty shell.  2 Blue Cranes welcomed us as we passed the marshland where they were resting.

Upon reaching the top of the lookout point, the heavens opened up which made the clear visibility of the animals difficult. We had a bird’s eye view of the Langebaan lagoon to our right and Saldanha Bay to our left. Throughout the day we saw Ostrich, Gemsbok, Cape mountain Zebra and their babies and Bontebok etc. it appears that there must have been some dispute between some of the Zebra herds as 1 of the herds kept on chasing after another herd.  According to 1 of the park officials 1 of the male Zebras has challenge the alpha male in the group for the leadership of the group.  Interestingly the Zebras has all been given names by the San park officials which all starts with a Z.

Flowers were plentiful all day, beautiful Yellow, Orange, White, Pink and Purple all enjoying the sun that was playing Peek-a Boo all day.  Walking along the amazing coastline we saw huge waves upon waves breaking on the rocks below us.

Almost 5 hours and 15 kilometres later we came to the end of the hike or so we thought only to be told by the San Parks official that we missed a loop near the end. This did not matter to us as by this time we were tired, wet with sore feet and in serious need of a good cup of coffee.

As we left the reserve, we came across an Ostrich couple taken their little ones for a walk down the exit road of the park.  The West Coast National Park certainly has it all, flowers, wildlife, birds, but more importantly its the unmistakably Natural beauty that makes it worth going.