Racing Ostriches and Magical Meerkats!


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Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Oudtshoorn
May 15th 2006
Published: May 15th 2006
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After the delights of Hermanus, we moved to Swellendam - best described as rural. You couldn't fault the view, if you could see it through the cloud of mosquitoes, so we swiftly moved to ostrich country.

Oudsthoorn is a nice little town, built on the wealth of ostrich feathers. The last big boom came to an end in 1914, so they have now diversified into eating them as well as selling the feathers - a damn fine chilli the mince makes!

The area is known as the Little Karoo or desert, as the mountains block the weather fronts coming in from the sea and the fields around town are full of ostriches. The town is full of grand buildings or "feather palaces" as they are known and for the first time so far, you actually feel safe. The backpackers called paradise is also as close as a hostel is likely to come.

We've been to nearby Cango Caves and failed spectacularly to show any aptitude for riding an ostrich, so that is off the future career list. Our Cape mountain biking experience proved the warm up for our 53 km marathon from the top of the Swartberg Pass into town. We didn;t cycle up I might add, as the bikes were trailored up by the hostel. It didn't seem that far, but we might be saddle sore in the morning.

Miranda was going to stroke a cheetah at a local conservation ranch, but didn't feel it appropriate at the moment of truth.

As avid fans of Meerkat Manor, the other main reason to come here was to watch meerkats. We'd discovered on the web that the guy who set up that project was now working here and for a donation to the cause you can accompany him. Up before dawn with the Settle Meerkat Fan Club to get to a secret meerkat location, you are there as part of the furniture when they wake up and set about their daily tasks. The Meerkat Man makes a series of sounds they associate with safety to allow you to get so close and they go through their full routine of burrow restoration, cleaning, grooming, sunbathing etc. before they set off for brekkie in pursuit for scorpions and other tasty bugs........before becoming mini JCBs to excavate them. As a bonus, we got to follow them on their morning forrage. Sadly you can't take the camera to take your own pictures as all the photos are copyrighted by the BBC and Discovery channel. However, the Meerkat Man sends you a few for your own use just to show how close you actually get to the meerkats. If you want to see more, you'll have to look at www.meerkatmagic.com to get the feeling of how good it was to get so close.


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Swartberg PassSwartberg Pass
Swartberg Pass

No shortcut down from up here.
Ostrich FarmOstrich Farm
Ostrich Farm

John will get his revenge by making you into a chilli later.
Backpackers ParadiseBackpackers Paradise
Backpackers Paradise

An aptly named hostel


15th May 2006

Ostrich Farm
John - That's got to be the worst impersonation of Bernie Clifton I have ever seen.
10th September 2023

Oudsthoorn
I missed out Oudsthoorn on my trip due to time constraints, so it's been good to read about it here. Ostrich riding, Cango Caves and meerkats - all looks amazing!
12th September 2023

Oudtshoorn
Oudtshoorn was a great place ....felt quite safe walking around at night there too. Backpackers Paradise has got to be in the top 5 of hostels we used on the whole trip. Meerkat watching was a highlight.

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