After the wine tasting in the wine region in South Africa, it was time for some activities. What better place to do that than in “the ostrich capital of the world”, Oudtshoorn?

The drive from Montagu to Oudtshoorn was interesting. First of all, I tried to capture the way the road appears like a roller coaster for hours and I finally managed. Kind of.. Capturing this became my mission during more of the road trips so you’ll see these kind of pictures in future posts as well. I think it looks so cool, and I haven’t seen this anywhere else in the world yet (maybe I’ve not been on enough road trips).

Second of all, I found the infamous Ronnie’s Sex Shop. Apparently it is actually a sex shop with a lot of paraphernalia. I thought someone had just painted these worlds on a normal pub, so I didn’t go inside. This is something I regret now, it would’ve been a lot of fun to check the shop itself and to meet Ronnie.

Oudtshoorn

Let me first describe Oudtshoorn before I move on to the “fun-filled” day of activities (fun-filled is sarcastic, you’ll find out why later on). Oudtshoorn is quite a prosperous town, and it owes its prosperity to the ostrich industry which dates as far back as the late 1800s. The worth of the white ostrich feather was so high that it was dubbed white gold. Nowadays, the production of specialised agricultural seed is the biggest contributor to the region’s wealth, but ostrich farming remains an important business.

I can heartily recommend the restaurants in Oudtshoorn. They serve excellent ostrich steak (for people who have never tried it, it’s nothing like chicken; it’s a red meat and it doesn’t contain any fat so it’s important to not overcook it). Also the ostrich eggs are worth a try in the morning as breakfast. They are huge and delicious!

Activities

I’ve procrastinated long enough. It’s time to describe the traumatic experiences. I had booked an all-day tour from the hotel. It started with a drive in the mini-van to the top of a hill outside Oudtshoorn. On the top of the hill we would be dropped off with mountain bikes and the first activity would be an Adventure Tour in Cango Caves, followed by lunch on an estate, a visit to an ostrich farm and then back to the hotel. To go from one place to the other, we had to travel by mountain bike. Luckily it wasn’t a group activity, so everything could be done at own pace.

Cango Caves
Let’s not beat around the bush, Cango Caves are indescribably hellish.

On the outside it looks lovely and you have a nice view.

Then when you turn around you see a map on the wall at the entrance. The route looks straightforward. You’ll find things like: Tunnel of Love (the name sounds great, but a woman got stuck here back in 2007, trapping the others in the cave for ten hours!), Ice Chamber, Coffin (!!!), Chimney, Devil’s Workshop (!!!).

Needless to say, I went into the caves with fear on my mind. The start of the tour is quite relaxing. You’re in a big area where the tour guide tells you all about the cave system.

Then comes the big metal ladder taking you to a wet and slippery climb through a tiny tunnel.

The Tunnel of Love (one of the first “obstacles) is 74cm high and it narrows to 30cm.

I made it past the Tunnel of Love and the Ice Chamber. And then I gave up. I turned into a crying little girl. I told the tour guide I would wait and sit in the dark while everyone was doing the circle around the caves. I studied the map so I knew where to plan my break down. The tour guide asked me if I would be OK by myself in the dark and I told him I absolutely didn’t mind. These are the pictures of “obstacles” I missed.

After they returned we had to make our way back the same way we came, so again down the metal ladder. Oh, what a horrid experience!! I’m a bit crazy so I want to try it again, to push myself to the limits, but it was so scary and slippery…

Lunch
After the trauma of the cave I had to cycle (on a mountain bike if only it were a sensible, comfortable Dutch bike) to the lunch location.

It was so incredibly hot and I was still stressed from the caves so it wasn’t great. The location of the lunch was lovely though.

Ostrich Farm
Luckily, there was no need to cycle from the lunch location to the ostrich farm.

And on top of that, the ostrich farm itself was great! The guide told us a lot of things about ostriches and I learnt a lot.

There’s one thing that freaked me out though, namely at the start of the tour we were told that ostriches don’t live very long in captivity because they are very stressed. At the end of the tour we were offered a ride on an ostrich, which means blindfolding the animal so it slows down, sitting on top of it and removing the blindfold so it starts running in a panic. I’m sure this activity removes even more years from the ostriches’ already short lives so I didn’t go for it.

However, I did go for a cuddle with an ostrich.

We watched an angry ostrich.

There was a feeding session. My face is not contorted like that out of fear, the ostriches slammed their heads into the bucket like crazy so there was a lot of force on the bucket and food was flying all around.

And the ostrich eggs passed the strength test.

Conclusion

Oudtshoorn is a great place for a few days break during a road trip. I only stayed for one or two days, but I could’ve easily made it more if I would’ve had more time. I’m a scaredy-cat so I didn’t enjoy Cango Caves, but I do appreciate how unique and beautiful it is, so I would heartily recommend it to people who are braver than I am (this includes 6 year old children who were on the tour with me and who loved it). In addition to all that, restaurants in Oudtshoorn are great and the town has a very nice atmosphere.

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