A rather camp experience

What a day! Rose to a breakfast of Ostrich eggs in Oudsthoorn, before complying with Chanelle's request that I have a shower today... so did that in the bloody freezing air of 8am before we climbed aboard the van which took us 30km away to the Canga caves.

"When you get inside go up three levels and your guide will meet you there"

We walked up three flights.

"Gooood morninggg everyoneee, my name is JohnFreeeed and i'lllll be your tour guide for the morningggg. The tourrr. Will start. In twenty five minutesssss. So youuu are free to browse the curio shop. Auditorium. Andddd information gallery on the first floooor. Until then. Goodbye"

Chanelle, a guy from our hostel and I made our way straight back down to the bottom floor.

"We walked up three flights just to be told we have twenty five minutes to walk back down, wander around and go up again?" Chanelle laughed
"Yes, well it's going to be a rather camp experience don't you think?" The other guy made his first of many jokes that I took several minutes to catch.

Twenty five minutes later and everyone had gathered up top. Except Chanelle. We waited. And waited a little more. Then just a little more waiting and she appeared.

"Ok, everyoneee. As I said, my nameeee is JohnFreeeed. I will be your tour guideee. Follow me!"

We spent the next ninety minutes walking, crawling and sliding through caves covering about three km. One woman pulled out before we got to the second of four tunnels due to claustrophobia. The smallest space was 75cm, the highest 30 meters. It was exactly my kind of adventure. A bit of physical exertion, but I was in control the whole time. Apparently, for Chanelle the experience was lacking a little adrenaline so at our next stop she decided to kiss an ostrich, which took a chunk out of her lip, before she climbed on the back of one and rode it around holding onto its feathers, with another ten ostriches within the 20 by ten meter enclosure! I had been planning to take a ride but after seeing them, their claws and the rocks beneath them I chickened (ha!) out and settled into my role as her photographer. The first ride she did I snapped away as she climbed on but sat with my jaw hanging off for the five seconds she stayed on after the ostrich took off. On her second attempt I managed to snap a few good shots. She came away with a few scratches and two bruises from her first go but somehow managed to land on her feet after her second go, during which she held on for twenty seconds.

After grabbing our bikes off the back of the van it was a two km ride to the tea gardens for a lazy lunch, before a ten km ride to the Canga Wildlife park where we planned to do a crocodile cage dive. We strolled around, learning about and looking at various animals and enclosures before finally arriving at the crocodile den.

"The crocodiles don't eat for three months during winter as they slow their bodily systems down to preserve heat and cannot digest food." Our guide informed us of the bad news.
"Ah, yes some people at the hostel told us about this. So you can't bait the crocodiles to make them move into the water then hey?"
"No. If they eat, because they can't digest the food, it stays in their stomach, will rot and eventually poison them."
"Should we do it?" Chanelle and I consulted with each other.

We decided against it, considering the price, temperature and lack of movement on the crocodiles part. The ostrich ride I could live without, but I had been really looking forward to the crocodile cage dive. I just wasn't willing to pay the money to be immersed in a crocodile water tank when all of the crocodiles were on the land. We finished the park tour and rode the two km back to the hostel, a drizzle of lactic acid slightly cramping my legs.

I now sit out the back of the hostel, on a table and chairs in the quaintest little garden, music floating around from someone's room. Exhaustion of the good kind has set in, to the point that I barely have the energy to write a rather measly blog... and my bed sounds very inviting right now. Ah yes.. if anyone from Cape Town is reading this.. I have a bed booked.. chickened out of sleeping in the 4 degree night air in the tent I borrowed.... perhaps another night....

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