Monkeyland, Ostrich Farm, Cango Caves

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MONKEYLAND



Monkeyland is a free-roaming primate sanctuary and is home to over 500 previously captive primates. The monkeys previously lived as pets, from petting zoos, private zoos or sometimes ordinary zoos. You are not allowed to touch the monkeys as the purpose of the sanctuary is to try to teach the monkeys to be monkeys again. They live together in reasonable harmony with lots of playful sparring.

We saw many different types including the local monkey the Vervet who has bright blue testicles to attract females, a white gibbon, spider monkeys, capuchin and yellow squirrel monkeys ( amongst others).





OSTRICH FARM



There are a number of ostrich farms in South Africa. In the 19th and early 20th century there were many more. The houses that were built by the wealthy owners became known as Feather palaces because they were built on the profits of the trade in ostrich feathers. The trade apparently took a large downturn due to WW1. The invention of the model T Ford also had a large effect on it. Apparently when the model T was invented and people moved from open carriages to closed cars, women did not need the large hats anymore, nor did they lose the feathers that their hats contained. We visited one such house and had morning tea on the lawns. The home was built with columns from Greece, windows from Holland, marble tiles from Italy, furnishings from England and local sandstone.

We were surprised to learn that emus came from the same family as the ostrich as do kiwi, cassowary and rheas. The ostriches weigh about 160 kgs and their eggs weigh about 2 kgs. The contents are the equivalent of about 24 chicken eggs.

The farm keeps a number of sub- species of ostrich including white, blue and red as well as emu for scientific purposes.



CANGO CAVES



Most impressive set of caves that we have ever seen. They are over 20 million years old. The underground caverns lay in the precambarian limestone foothills of the Swartberg range. The extensive system of tunnels and chambers stretches for 4 kilometres of which only cave number one, which is 90 metres long, is open to visitors. Water has seeped over the limestone ridges for thousands of years, creating spectacular calcite masterpieces.



DURBAN TO GHOST MOUNTAIN



Drove through the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi reserves which were founded in 1895 and have focused their efforts on saving the black rhino. You drive at slow speeds and form a line of cars whenever wildlife is found. We saw rhino, buffalo, giraffes, warthogs , antelopes and zebra. A great start to our game watching in what was essentially a driving day.



Next stop Kruger National Park...........

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Comments

[Dean]

That's a funny lookin Hippo
Maybe tell the Hippo to disguise himself as a Hippo and not a Rhino, he will be better off!

[Vic and Kev]

Everyone's a critic. Title updated