Final Weekend Day 3- Caves, Ostriches, and Baby Cheetahs!

We spent the next two nights at a backpackers’ lodge in the town of Oudtshoorn, an area known for ostrich farming. Not surprisingly, our breakfast at the lodge in the morning included scrambled eggs made from ostrich eggs. The volume of one ostrich egg is equal to 24 chicken eggs! Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you if the taste was any different from a chicken egg because my nose was stuffed and my senses of smell and taste were limited.

The last day of our adventure-filled final weekend (Monday, August 9) was jam-packed with interesting activities. In the morning we toured the Cango Caves, a set of caverns under the mountains filled with limestone rock formations- stalactites and stalagmites. The caves were not that different from some of the limestone caves I’ve seen in the U.S., but the unique thing about Cango Caves is the type of tour they offer. At the caves you can choose to take either the Standard Tour or the Adventure Tour. The Standard Tour is a basic walking tour through the large open areas of the cave while the Adventure Tour is a little more involved, including climbing and crawling through small spaces like a real cave explorer. The majority of our group, myself included, opted for the Adventure Tour. I’m not the biggest fan of small tight spaces, but I’m always up for trying new things. It was a challenge to climb through that cave, but I managed through the ducking, crouching, crawling, and squeezing better than I thought I would. My dancer’s agility certainly came in handy. Some of the more intense parts included the “Devil’s Chimney,” a narrow tunnel about six feet long that you have to climb up through. The space is so narrow all the way around that you can’t really put your arms to your sides. You have to push upwards with your legs mostly and keep your arms in front of you. I felt a little like I was swimming to the surface from deep in the water, I just wanted to get out as quickly as possible so I pulled myself up with all my might. Another tight spot was the “Post Box,” a space about 2 feet high and 8-9 feet long. You basically have to army crawl on your stomach through the tunnel. At the end you have to squeeze through a space a little more than a foot high and slide down a short slope on your stomach. Thankfully the tour guide was there to help us out. My friends and I had a great time taking silly pictures of each other among the cave formations the whole time we were on the tour. In the end it was a great time and a great way to bond with people, helping each other through tight cave spaces.

Limestone stalactites

After lunch we visited an ostrich farm. As part of the tour, visitors are given the opportunity to ride on an ostrich if they want. However, bearing riders is very tiring for the ostriches so the farm only allowed eight people from our group to ride. I wasn’t dying to ride an ostrich so I opted out, but I did get to sit on the ostrich and get my picture taken. Watching the others ride was pretty hilarious. It’s very difficult to stay balanced on the ostrich, so there are two trainers who run alongside and pull the person off once they start to lose their balance. The trainers themselves were very good at it and could even steer the ostrich by gently pulling its neck toward one side or the other. Some of the other close ostrich encounters included getting an ostrich “hug,” where the trainer holds their hand with food behind your back and the ostrich reaches its neck over your shoulder to get it. I was surprised at how soft the ostrich’s neck feathers were. Two of the guys from our group were talked into “kissing” the ostrich, putting a piece of ostrich feed sticking out of their mouths and the ostrich would come and peck it out. That was very entertaining to watch and both guys claimed that it was one of the most awkward things they’d ever done. Haha. We also learned that ostrich eggs are incredibly strong. A large adult man can stand on one without it breaking. It takes an ostrich chick close to 48 hours to peck its way out of the egg when hatching.

Ostrich riding

Ostrich hug

The last thing we did that day was visit a place called Cango Wildlife Ranch, which was kind of like a zoo but more interactive. We toured through their different animal exhibits and saw warthogs, vultures, lemurs, flamingoes, crocodiles, a pygmy hippo, a river otter, white and brown tigers, white lions, and adult and baby cheetahs. For an extra fee they allow people to enter the enclosures and touch some of these animals. All of us paid to pet baby cheetahs, something Corvell told us about a long time ago that we were all very excited to do. The cheetah was adorable and reminded me of a very large housecat. One of the babies was even playing with a stuffed toy while we pet it. It was so cute! Some others in the group also got to hold a boa constrictor and two girls even paid to do a cage dive in the crocodile enclosure.

Crocodile cage diving

That night we were treated to a delicious dinner at the backpackers’ lodge that included braaied ostrich meat, on shish kebabs and in sausage form. Mmmm! Then we spent the rest of the night relaxing and hanging out. It was sad to think that we’d be leaving South Africa in just a few days, but it was nice for the time being to enjoy spending time together. We’ve all grown very close as a group over the past six weeks and I knew it would be hard to say goodbye to each other and to all the wonderful South Africans we’ve met along the way as well.