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Published: September 15th 2006
Well, the past two days have been very exciting and exhausting. We finally left Plettenburg Bay and headed inland to this little town called Outsdhoorn. Don't ask me how to pronounce it, I have had many locals laugh at me when asking how to get there. This town is not very exciting but the backpackers hostel is amazing. It is called Paradise Backpackers and the name really says it all. I love watching Jordan doing his school work in the gardens with the owls hooting in the background. They have a really funny dog named Pheonix that will entertain you for hours - I do believe she is a bit wacko. The hostel is family run and Petra, the lady of the house, is so friendly and welcoming. She makes dinner every night, a dinner of ostrich of course (we are in Outsdhoorn, Ostrich capital of the world) and the place just has a really free, familial feel to it. It has been very nice.
However, today we left Outsdhoorn to head towards Hermanus, a little town right on the ocean, and I have been looking forward to this town since I was planning my trip back in Canada.
It is beautiful in Hermanus and there is so much to do. I am very happy to be returning to the ocean as I didn't really like being away from it. This is where we will be making a little visit to those ever so timid Great White Sharks and I feel nervous about that but excited. But first, we stopped off at these caves called Cango Caves and went right through the first part of the cave system. At first I decided I only wanted to do the standard tour that just shows you the main chambers of the cave but Jordan wanted to do the adventure tour so badly that I had to swallow my fear of teeny tiny places and just go. Well...... it was adventurous alright. One of the passes that you must go through in this cave system was only 30 cm wide. No, I am not exagerating - LITERALLY 30cm. It was so amazing though. Some of the formations in this cave were over 1.5 million years old and I felt humbled to be with these formations that had been around long before any time that I could even conceive of. Just when the
Arriving at Cango Caves
...with my pants still in one piece.squeeze was so tight and I felt like I had enough, we would come upon a new chamber on the other side that was so beautiful and so breathtaking that you couldn't help but want to see more. There are 5 parts to the Cango cave system but people in general are only allowed in the first two parts with tourists only being allowed in the first part. I couldn't imagine what parts 4 and 5 are like. You need oxygen to get there and only scientists and researchers ever venture there. It kind of felt like you were in some kind of fairytale.
When we first entered the cave we entered into the biggest chamber of the Cango Caves. I tried to capture it on film, but there is just no way to capture that scale and size on camera. You will see on the picture that I tried to get Jordan and our guide in the shot to give perspective but even then the picture doesn't do it any justice. Again, like so many things on this trip, it felt magical and it just took your breathe away. One interesting fact is that Coldplay offered Cango
First chamber in Cango caves
If you look in the middle you can see Jordan and the guide to give you a sense of scale. Caves somewhere in the area of 25-30 million dollars to allow them to do a full concert in the first chamber - that is how big it is. Cango caves refused the offer, they are much more concerned with conservation.
It was really neat, in the first chamber there is an area where I guess no one is allowed to go to. It is across the rope fence and around a corner. When the other guide passed and our guide was pretty sure no one was around he quickly said "follow me" and Jordan and I ran after him. We turned this corner and hanging on the side of the cave was a formation they called the crystal ball. It was huge and majestic and beautiful, and we weren't supposed to be there - that was probably the best thing about it. It was the only formation in the caves (that we saw) that was a majestic snowy white, it looked like it had snowed on this crystal ball. Anyways, I got a picture of the crystal ball and I love it.
So we passed many chambers and pathways, things that lead up, down, sideways, backwards
- on your stomach, on your back, your knees, your hands - you name it, we did it to get through these caves. Halfway through I ripped the ass of my pants, of course, and I just had to get over the fact that the 19 year old tour guide was going to get flashed every now and then as I was doing my half triple backflip handstand somersault to get through the next passage. Oh well, I'm in Africa - it doesn' matter.
Anyways, the humidity in the cave was 97% and the only oxygen that entered the cave was from the entrance which was a good couple of kilometers back. So with the oxygen low and the humidity high, my pants torn with my ass sticking out, we were all having a great time. That is until we got to the final pass called the chimney. It is called the chimney for a reason - because it is shaped like a chimney......hmmmmm, clever aren't they. I did not like the chimney. There is a picture of our guide trying to get up it, the one that kind of looks like his upper body is missing with
just his legs sticking out. It was soooooo small and sooooo claustrophobic. I am ashamed to say that I passed on the chimney and so did the guide. Jordan tried to give it a shot a few times, but it was almost impossible to manouver as it is 10 feet straight up this little rock tube. Why would anyone want to do that? Well, you can ask Jordan why. I had given up for him but he was not willing to call it a day. He tried and tried again. He was really scared to go up this thing. There were a few tense moments of the guide trying to push him up it like a sausage, and then...he did it!! I was so proud of him! Not only did he get up this horrible chimney, but when he did get up he was on the other side by himself because the guide and I were too lame to do it. The guide promised me that he was boxed in up top and nothing could happen to him. So we hung our heads and went and met the 10 year old with no fear around the other side of this
chimney. It was cool because Jordan was the only one that saw the Post Box chamber and he got to do this little slide thing out of it that we missed because we're chickens. Oh well, the only thing worse than being a chicken is a chicken that is stuck in the chimney. Jordan was so proud of himself and so was I. We were 2 1/2 hours into this cave system and I was happy to be on my way back to entrance where there was ample oxygen, a normal amount of humidity and I could pick my sweater up at the front desk and tie it around my waist to cover my ass.
As we were heading back towards the entrance, we came across another guide that was doing the adventure tour. She took a liking to Jordan and invited him to join her group to do the system again - he went. He did the chimney again. Oh to be 10. He did awesome, he has such and adventurous streak in him - I hope it dissipates by the time he leaves home. We have an agreement...... he is only allowed to do these type
of things with me. I told him when he meets a girl and wants to travel the world, I will come with them - and no dangerous stuff either. Dream on, huh?
For some reason, on the way out of the Cango Caves, we decided that Jordan needed to ride an ostrich. Don't ask me how or why we decided this, but it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. I only have video of it, but we laughed our asses off. I guess we just needed to add ostrich riding to our day.
We decided to drive most of the way to Hermanus, which was a town called Swellendam. Terrible town. I did not feel safe anywhere. We didn't arrive until 10:00 at night and we couldn't find the backpackers. When we did find it, it was just as awful as the town. It is by far the worst place we have been and the only place we haven't liked. We stayed in what they advertised as beautiful cabins scattered across the property. Beautiful cabins my ass...... It was a box with no heat, no electricity, no room to move. They were kind of
cute, but the people at the hostel were really sketchy like they were all on some sort of substance. We woke up very early and headed for Hermanus. After yesterday, I needed to go visit the Great White sharks just to have a break.
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Damian
non-member comment
Bats?
Were there any man-eating bats??