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Published: June 14th 2010
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I purchased a ticket for the South African hop on hop off backpacker bus service, which will allow me to get on and off the Baz Bus anytime I wish over the next two weeks. This morning I will begin to travel the Garden Route between Cape Town and George which is the jumping off point for Outdshoorn pronounced Oatsweren.
The trip was long and a bit boring, taking most of the day - the countryside was very similar to rural South Australia so it wasn’t overly interesting to me, although I did see a troop of baboons, a few elephants and numerous ostriches which was pretty exciting. Eventually we arrived in George around 4.30pm and were met by a shuttle which would take me through the mountains to Oudtshoorn which means Old Horn in Dutch.
The 70 kilometre drive through the mountains was steep, panoramic and awesome. Soon the driver (Gavin), an Englishman called Richard and I arrived at a hostel on the northern side of the very attractive town of Oudtshoorn and I was soon ensconced in the little bar watching a rugby game with a group of local rugby tragics and indulging in a few cold
beers.
My room at this hostel is a small, very cheap single; prices here are not inflated as we are nowhere near a World Cup stadium. Oudtshoorn was once the Ostrich feather capital of the world, exporting feathers to Europe and the United States until open roofed cars were invented and the industry ruined due to the feathers being damaged by the wind. There are still many Ostrich farms in the region but now they are mainly for meat.
The next day I arranged a trip to the Cango Caves which means “wet place” in the language of the indigenous Khoisan people. The caves meander about a kilometre under ground and there is evidence of human habitation, I enjoyed the walk and the interesting stalagmite formations. When I exited the cave there was a strange cloud formation shaped like a funnel hanging above the caves in an otherwise cloudless sky it was quite strange.
I then visited one of the areas Ostrich Farm’s where I climbed on the back of an Ostrich (poor thing) and ate some Ostrich Biltong (dried meat) before the driver dropped me at the entrance to a wildlife park located about two kilometres
from my hostel. Here I was able to see a variety of African wildlife including the Meerkat, the rare Cape Vulture and some gorgeous Cheetah cubs, which was just fantastic.
The next morning I was up at 5am to go out into the Karoo to visit a wild Meerkat colony - it was a truly brilliant experience, even surpassing my Cheetah encounter from the previous day. Watching the Meerkat family emerging one by one from their burrows as the morning mist burned off the desert was incredible, the colony had 13 members many of which were juveniles. As the sun climbed above the horizon the most confident female (Molly) emerged from the communal burrow just metres from where I sat, then one after another they all emerged to bask in the heat of the morning sun.
After an hour or so of sunning themselves the young ones began to roll around fighting and generally just having fun while their elders watched for potential predators. Eventually the whole group set off to forage for food, moving like infantry soldiers on patrol, scouting for food while watching for predators, it was brilliant to watch. I also saw a pair of
Steenbok on the way back to the vehicle.
In the afternoon I wandered around Outshoorn taking the time to visit the Museum, it is an attractive little town of about 27,000 and is quiet and peaceful.
The next day Gavin drove me back across the mountains to George where the Japanese football team are based. The connecting Baz Bus was very late arriving, so I didn’t get to see much of the countryside between George and Port Elizabeth as it was dark most of the time, I finally arrived at the hostel in Port Elizabeth around 11pm
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