Early Starts and Ostriches


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Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Oudtshoorn
May 16th 2008
Published: May 16th 2008
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Today was the day Jill had been waiting for nearly a year - the Meerkat Safari!
The Safari was to take place where the Discovery Channel film Meerkat Manor and because of this we couldn’t do the evening tour, we had to meet the guide at 6:40am for the morning tour. Not too bad I hear you say, but when the meeting place is 80miles away over a mountain pass then you won’t be surprised to hear that it entails a 5am start! So up we got and off we drove before dawn even thought about cracking.
Jill checked her texts after 70miles on the road at about 6:30am. It turns out that the guide texted us yesterday at tea-time saying that the trip was cancelled!!!
Slightly shell shocked we managed to get a local Wimpy (I told you we were stuck in the 70’s here) to open at 7am to get us some breakfast.
Oh well we were a bit stuffed for things to do at that time so we took a slow drive up to some famous cave formations called Kango Caves and waited for the doors to open to the visitor centre. We did the first tour with about 3 other people, in the last cave the guide turned off all the lights and in the pitch blackness sung us an African homeland song - all extremely surreal.
The area we were in was famous for one thing apart from its caves and non-appearing meerkats - Ostriches are everywhere, folks selling feather dusters are on every street corner and huge egg shells turned into everything from ashtrays to wine glasses abound. Jill even managed to sit on one of the big birds without it screaming!
So after the ostrich excitement we headed back to the B&B over the mountain pass, this time in daylight, a beautiful day with blue skies made the amazing views outstanding.
We got home in time to feed some of the local rock dassies which most of whom took a liking to Jill and proceeded to chase her around the car park.
A dinner overlooking the sea at Mossel Bay beckons tonight - again for pennies no doubt 
One of our longest drives tomorrow and an overnight stay in Port Elizabeth on the way to Shamwari game reserve on Sunday.



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19th May 2008

Kango Caves
Did you do the Adventure tour through the Kango caves? We did, and it was pretty though as well! Climbing up through a chimney is not so easy.
24th May 2008

With all the cheap food and wine I wouldn't fit through the gaps in the adventure trip in Kango Caves - I would still be stuck there if I tried!

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