In the Klein Karoo

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Pretty low key day today. We got up and Erika drove us 3.5 hours to our final destination of Oudtshoorn (pronounced odes-hern ). We drove away from the coast and inland through the mountains. Up until now, the scenery had been green and lush. Right after we went through the mountain passes, the vegetation changed to short shrubbery, some cacti, and the tips of the mountains were sandy instead of grassy.

Oudtshoorn is known for it's ostrich farms so everywhere you look, there are souvenirs, lamps, and teapots made out of ostrich eggs. I went to the supermarket called Pick n' Pay and as I was walking down the aisle with the eggs, everything looked normal until I saw the basket of ostrich eggs right next to the chicken eggs. Let me tell you, these things are HUGE! One ostrich egg is equivalent to 26 regular chicken eggs. People use them when they need to make scrambled eggs for large groups of people. And you don't crack ostrich eggs open. You use a drill to make a hole in the tip of the egg and pour the yolk out. They shells are pretty resilient too. A person can stand on an egg without breaking the shell. At the hostel we are staying at, they leave a bowl of ostrich egg out and you can scoop some into the pan to make scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Erika, our guide, also left us today. It was sad because she's been such a great companion during the past few days. One of the coolest people that I've met. We might see her again when we head back to CapeTown on the last day. Now that we're on our own, our little group of 6 is responsible for our own breakfast and dinners. Jen volunteered to cook the first meal. We had yummy pita stuffed tacoes, salad, and wine.

Oudtshoorn will be our home for the next 10 days. I'll be helping out at the Cango Wildlife Ranch right down the street. It's a 15 minute walk and we have to be there at 7:50 every morning and we get off of work at 5. I have no idea what we'll be doing, but we will find out tomorrow morning when we get our orientation.

Now I'm going to curl up next to the fire and read a book.

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Comments

[Sungyon Lee]

whoa!
You've gotta take a picture of that ostrich egg!! I love things that seem blown up out of proportion!! =0 Anyhow, is life good?