Hot weather messes with the ability of your mind to make smart decisions and after a week in Oudtshoorn, where daily temperatures exceed 35 deg celsius, we have the proof that this statement is true. When we took off on this trip I would not have imagined that I would be kissing other women, but that was before I had met Betsy. It was love at first sight and when I got asked if she could kiss me, I could not resist.
Oudtshoorn is the ostrich capital of the world. Back in the late 1800’s all important people in the world wanted to get dressed in ostrich feathers and the town of Oudtshoorn got really rich. Today the feathers are not really worth a lot anymore, but they still make a decent living from farming ostriches for the leather, the meat, the eggs and the tourists. We did a tour at the Cango ostrich farm and enjoyed seeing the baby ostriches coming out of their shells. One ostrich egg is as big as 24 chicken eggs, so you can imagine that even the babies are already large chickens. The group that we did the tour with was quite tame, so when the guide asked if someone wanted to kiss Betsy, or l
ater asked who wanted a neck message, it was only Petra and myself who enthousiastically volunteered. Doing a trip like this is all about new experiences, so we just say yes when the opportunity arises.
Did we already mention that it is hot here? Oudtshoorn is the largest city in the Klein Karoo, but unlike Montagu that got cool wind from the mountains, Oudtshoorn heats-up very quickly and there is hardly a breeze during the day. Even the owners of the place tell us that it is unusual warm, as it does not cool down much overnight. Luckily the house we stay in, the Golden barrel, has a large pool and we have been using it daily. And there are plenty of ‘cool’ things to do in Oudtshoorn.
One day we went to visit the Cango caves. These amazing caves at the foot of the Swartberg mountains are the main attraction here next to the ostriches. The caves have been formed over millions of years and have very large halls filled with pillars, stalactites and stalagmites. There are two tours, an easy one and an adventure tour, where you need to crawl through very narrow passages like the 
‘letterbox’ or the ‘tunnel of love’. With two small kids and not so small parents, we decided we were better off with the easy tour. This was perfect and we enjoyed walking through the cave for about an hour. No one knows how many caves there are. In total about 4 km of cave systems have been discovered. Cango 1 is open to tourists and Cango 2 & 3 have been closed off for entry to preserve the very fine crystals and structures. They know there is also a Cango 4 and there could even be a Cango 5, 6 or more. At the entrance they show a movie of an expedition to Cango 2 & 3 and Lucas thought that this movie was really cool. You get a good feel of how great Cango 1 had been before they allowed thousands of visitors (about 200.000 per year).
Another ‘cool’ activity we did this week is to visit the waterfall at Meiringspoort. It is about 40 minutes drive from Oudtshoorn towards Prince Albert, but according to our hosts worth the trip. There is another waterfall closer to Oudtshoorn, Rust and Vrede waterfall, but you are not allowed to swim in this waterfall as it is the main water supply to the city. As it is allowed to swim in the pools below the Meiringspoort fall, we decided to have a picnic there and escape the mi
dday heat. We liked the place, the kids could not get enough from sliding down the rocks into the pools and we enjoyed the frogs and crabs in the clear water. A perfect and relaxed day out.
Our hosts were a bit confused when we arrived the first day. Normal tourists stay 1 or 2 nights in Oudtshoorn and the max they had guests staying before was 5 nights. We will stay here for 10 nights and on arrival he asked us, are you sure you want to stay here that long, as there is not much to do. We explained the concept of slow travel to him and that we also want to take time to do normal things, school, blogs, etc. We have been here for a week now and we still have many things we want to do, so we will enjoy our 10 days here.
Don’t forget to take a peek at our pictures and scroll to the bottom – there are new pictures from Oudtshoorn.