Blogs from Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 7

Cango Caves Regretfully said goodbye to Abalone Beach House to drive inland to Oudtshoorn, driving through spectacular mountain passes. First stop was Cango Caves. Recalling the recent news story of a woman becoming wedged on the Adventure Tour and stuck in the caves for 11 hours, we decided to opt for the Standard Tour, especially as the Adventure Tour is recommended for "lean people" only! We certainly didn't fancy trying to squeeze our beer bellies through a 27cm gap called The Post Box! The tour was very interesting, despite feeling like a huge tourist group complete with small annoying children. What stupid parents bring little babies and toddlers in baby backpacks on a cave tour? We felt really sorry for the little ones when the over-enthusiastic tour guide melodramatically turned all the lights off at every ... read more

Checked out at the Marina after breakfast and another nice walk. Then I decided that I would drive to Oudsthoorn--how brave of me! It is really somthing else to drive on the other side of the road AND the other side of the car. The phrase of the morning (from Ross) was "Di, would you please think about driving a little more to the right!" He was pretty calm, given the circumstances! The phrase of the morning (from Di) was "Oh, ^&*$#!! I'm speeding again!" The speed limit for a chunk of the time was 60 or 80 km/h, so it was quite easy to go faster than that. You really don't want to speed in SA--there are cameras EVERYWHERE! Anyway, we got to Oudtshoorn (the Safari Ostrich Show Farm, specifically) in one piece. It ... read more

Sun 22nd Left early to head to Ostrich mad Oudtshoorn. We visited one of the farms there that gave a tour of their farm, including a look at their feather palace - a semi-grand house (compared to UK castles!) that were built when money was pleantiful from the sale of white feathers plucked from under the wings of male ostriches. The money stopped rolling in when feathers went out of favour because ladies struggled to get in and out of the recently arrived motor cars (so they say). Facts: Ostrich eggs are comparable to eating 20-24 chicken eggs. They can be stood on without breaking as long as they have sand underneath them to support them. Tamsin was the only one in the group of 10 or so people that rode an Ostrich. Weight restrictions ... read more

Today we are traveling to Oudshoorn about 400km east from the Stellenbosch along the R62 (SA equivalent of route 66 in the US). After saying an early farewell to Marli we packed and got ready to go. Before we left however we had arranged a cellar tour and tasting of the wines from the Marianne Estate. It’s weird but in the last 2 days we have driven about 200km and visited 8 wine farms but the best wine we tasted was from the farm we were staying on. Hasten to say we bought 12 bottles! In total we bought 62 bottles of wine which we ware shipping back to the UK (N.B Dad keep your hands off!). We then hit the road to Stellenbosch (in our newly acquired hire car) where Kirsten wanted to winder ... read more

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