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.

Final Weekend Day 2- Safari and Zip Lining

The next day (Sunday, August 8) we packed up all our things from the lodge in George and drove to see a game reserve near the town of Mossel Bay. At this reserve, called Botlierskop, we got to go on a real African wildlife safari (I guess you could call it that.) through the hills and valleys of the reserve. We rode in huge jeep-like vehicles all across the plains and up the hillsides. The views were stunning – green rolling hills as far as the eye could see with mountains in the distance on one side and the ocean far away on the other. Driving all through these hills felt a little bit like being on a slow moving roller coaster with all the ups and downs.

On the tour we saw more elephants, a family with a mom, dad, and baby. They also drove us up on one hill where Botlierskop has a 90 hectare lion sanctuary. Right now only two female lions live there. There used to be two male lions living there also, but both sadly passed away within the last year. The guide told us that since these lions grew up in captivity they could never be released back into the wild so they created a large enclosure for them that would mimic life in the wild as much as possible. This reserve is also home to a large herd of impalas, both brown and endangered black impalas. For several years Botlierskop has run a breeding program to increase the population of black impalas.

We also saw a herd of wildebeest, a couple different antelope species (waterbuck and bontebok), white rhinos, giraffes, and zebras. The rhinos and giraffes were particularly exciting. We had driven around for a while without seeing any animals when we came around a bend and spotted a family of rhinos (mom, dad, and two daughters) grazing at the bottom of a hill. Their horns were huge and dangerous looking but they looked very content and peaceful. A little farther on one of the girls from our group spotted two giraffes way off in the distance. Our guide tried to bring the jeep closer but there was a swamp in the way that the vehicle couldn’t get through. Thankfully my camera had enough zoom that I could get great pictures of the giraffes even though they were far away. Eventually one giraffe became curious enough about us that it came closer and stopped about 50 yards from us. It was amazing to see these animals roaming free like this. Finally, at the end of our tour we saw a small herd of zebras. I was especially excited to see these because my band sorority’s mascot is a zebra. I’m very glad to come home from Africa with pictures of real zebras.

Wildebeest

Bontebok

After the safari tour we drove 2½ hours east, just across the border into the Eastern Cape province. (So now I can say I’ve been to two provinces in South Africa – Western Cape and Eastern Cape.) Some of our group had signed up to go bungy jumping at a place called Bloukrans Bridge, which is the highest bridge in Africa and the highest bungy jump distance in the world of 216 m. A company called Face Adrenalin operates the bungy jumps from this bridge. While I like adventures and thrills as much as the next person, I wasn’t really interested in something quite as crazy as bungy jumping. About half the group was dropped off here to do the jump or just to watch and the rest of us drove a few miles farther to the town of Storms River where we went zip lining in the nearby Tsitsikamma Forest. For zip lining you’re strapped into a harness that goes around your thighs, waist, and up your back. You have two clamps on your front that attach to the main cable and other clamp at your back that attaches to a secondary cable. Connected like this you slide on the cables from tree to tree, landing at a platform built onto each tree. Two guides come with your group to hook you on and off the cables at each tree. On the tour there are 10 different cable slides, varying in length and speed. The longest was about 90m long. Don’t worry, it’s very safe. The guides keep a close eye on us and even when we’re standing on the platforms we’re still hooked to another cable that wraps around the tree. I was a little nervous at first, but after the first slide that went away. It felt like flying to glide from tree to tree like that so high above the forest floor. Even though it was also raining and chilly I still had a great time. Most of the trees there were yellow-wood trees, which is the national tree of South Africa. I thought that was kind of cool.

Afterwards, we drove back to Bloukrans Bridge to meet up with the bungy jump group, all of whom were very excited and raving about their experience. Then we drove the 2½ hours back the way we came. It was a long day and I was very tired by the end of it.