Cango Caves and Awesome Ostriches

 Sunday, February 19, 2023

I have to start putting the date on the blog posts because I now can't remember what day it is!

It’s Daytona 500 day, but we won’t be there, for the first time in 12 years!   And, we don’t have a tv to be able to watch!  The race doesn’t start until 10 pm our time, so will finish in the wee hours.

Even though we weren't at the race, we had our own pit crew...Howard...who took a look at our flat tire and agreed we had a bit of a problem .  He got out his handy tools, sprayed in some "fix-a-flat" goop, aired up the tire and said to "keep an eye on it".  Luckily, it's held up.  Thank goodness for Howard.  We're going to give him a race hat...an honorary pit crew member!

We are in Oudtshoon, and we’re spending the day in caves and with ostriches!

The Cango Caves are a cave system that extends for at least 2.5 miles.  It is a series of huge chambers.  The caves were first explored in 1780 by a farmer who was lowered into the dark chamber.  Our guide turned out the lights to show us how dark it would have been--yikes!

We got to go through three different chambers, each with dramatic high celings and towering limestone formations that are millions of years old. 

  Everywhere you looked there were huge stalagmites (coming from the ground) and stalactites (coming from above).  I learned about those in science class, but have never seen such a display of  these geologic treasures.)

The formations all had names, such as Frozen Waterfall, and Eiffel Tower and Bridal Suite.  Can you see why?

In the second chamber, the largest chamber, when the guide turned on the lights, the crowd of visitors gasped out loud at the sight of the soaring ceilings and amazing structures. It was truly impressive.  We commented that the cave was not wet and musty like the caves in Kentucky and Tennessee.  This cave was dry and the colors were bright with the lights turned on. 

At the conclusion of the tour, our guide (we couldn't pronounce his name, so he told us to call him Eric) sang to us in his native language. I think the language is Khoi.  It was a great ending to a fabulous tour!

Then we headed to the Ostrich farm.   The first Ostrich farm istarted in Outdtshoorn in the 1800's.  This was the primary source of income for the area. Feathers were a big deal in fashion and entertainment and Oudtshoorn was once known as the feather capital of the world.  

We got to feed the ostriches--some were very aggressive (must have been hungry) and really went after Jim's hand!

  Ostriches are not only used for feathers, but for meat, skin (leather) and their eggs.  Their eggshells are so hard you can stand on them!  And they are so large, that one ostrich egg is equal to 24 hen's eggs!   Wonder what the price is for a dozen ostrich eggs?

Ostriches are the largest non-flying bird that is not extinct, and also has the fastest speed on land.  They walk and run on two toes, and can sprint 40-50 mpg.

After our fill of information, we got filled with a lunch of ostrich filet, ostrich sausage and pineapple cheesecake!   Ostrich is supposed to be the healthiest red meat.  It has 1/3 the fat of beef, and more iron than any other red meat.  It was actually very good and tasted like a good steak.  Next time I'm in Kroger, I'm going to ask if they carry ostrich meat!

Leavng the ostrich farm,  we made our way back down the mountain through the Swartberg Pass, rated one of the most spectacular drives in Africa.  It truely was spectacular, especially when we popped out of a hairpin turn and saw the Indian Ocean with it's huge white waves, and wide white beach, welcoming us to the next part of our journey.

We ended up the day at Woodbourne Caraven Park in Knysna.  I was able to zoom with my family who adjusted the Sunday zoom schedule to fit my time zone (thanks sibs!).   How amazing that we are able to communicate so easily from so far away.