Advertisement
Published: October 1st 2009
Edit Blog Post
From Cape Point we continued onto Hermanus. A small town along the coast of Africa that is famous for whale watching. August and September are supposed to be the peek season for seeing the Southern Right Whale. We spent the afternoon having lunch at a very over priced seafood restaurant watching whales jump. These whales were so big that you could see them while they were swimming under water. It was pretty exciting every time a whale jumped, and at one point there were two whales jumping together, one right after the other. There were some kayakers out in the water very close to the whales and I have to admit I was very jealous. We continued our afternoon with having some gelato on a park bench.
From there we went to Cape Aguhlus, which is the southern most point of Africa. It is where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet. I tried to climb out into the water to stand in both oceans at the same time but it ended up being harder than it looked. We were planning on spending the night close to here but decided to push on to Mossel Bay, which we only spent the
night.
The next day we headed to Oudtshoorn which is famous for ostrich farms. It had been raining and the farms that we called said that they were not open because of the weather. We ended up heading up there anyway because they have a place to touch lions, cheetahs and tigers. I didn’t do this but Tiffany and Jen took full advantage and both agreed that the experience was excellent.
While we were heading out of town we decided to stop by the last ostrich farm to see if they would offer the ostrich ride or not. I have to admit the next story you are about to read is one of my favorite memories of my life!
Here we go. So we arrived and typically when you pay for then ostrich ride you get to tour the farm and learn all about ostriches and their breeding program; however due to lack of time and lack of interest we decided to skip this tour and jump straight to the riding of the ostrich.
So we follow our guide out to this area that had about six male ostriches. He lets us into the area and
these two other guys come out one of which was carrying this large pole that had a hook on the end. These people caught my attention and I watch as they approached the ostriches that were beginning to run from them, all of the sudden they reach out with this long pole and just grab one of the birds around the neck. It looked so horrible. I am pretty sure that if the animal rights people saw what was happening to these birds they would freak out. So at any rate, once the bird was caught it put up a significant fight until the a small bag about the size of chip bag was placed over its head, and then it just stood still and walked exactly where the guys guided him too. The tour guy explained that ostriches have very small brains, about 20 grams, and they think that if they can see you, you can’t see them.
So after the bag is on the birds head the guys walked the ostrich over to the mounting post were they lift the wings and tell you sit on the birds back. This just feels weird. I can never explain
how it feels to sit on a very large bird, you just have to do it! So after you have gotten comfortable, the lay the wings over your legs and tell you hold onto the front of the wings. They then ask the question, are you ready, and of course the answer is no! But they remove the bag from the ostriches head anyway and then to proceed to encourage the bird to run.
So as I was sitting on top of the ostrich, there were two guys on either side of me running with the bird to make sure that I did not fall off. There was another guy running behind me and the group yelling at the bird to get it to run and then all of the other ostriches were freaking out and running behind him. It was absolute chaos. I have never screamed so much in my life.
So when you are ready to come off the ostrich you are supposed to tell them and they would help you off the bird while still running. Technically, it should be easy, just slide off the back, yeah right! I start to scream, “I’m done, I’m
done,” and they tell me to let go. At that point there was no way that I could process what they were telling me to let go of. The next thing that I knew this guy was basically pulling me off the bird. My right leg was stuck up on the ostrich’s back because I was coming off side ways, and the bird looks directly at me with the biggest eyes and open mouth with the thought in face of what the hell are you doing on me. I couldn’t stop screaming/yikesing! When my feet finally hit the ground I just hugged the guy that pulled me off and I couldn’t stop laughing. It was truly, an outrages experience that I can only hope that everyone has the opportunity to experience!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0291s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Heidi
non-member comment
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hahahaha! that is hilarous!