May 14 - Cango Caves and Knysna

Happy Mothers’ Day to all the mothers and those women who provide love and comfort and nurturing!

At breakfast, we were treated to both sun and rain. We hoped for the first and worked around the latter. We were entertained by a delightful little blond boy, James, from the Netherlands who gave out high fives and waves and huge smiles.

We were on the road by 9:00 a.m. on our way to Cango Caves. The Cango Caves are located in Precambrian limestones at the foothills of the Swartbergrange near the town of Oudtshoorn, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The principal cave is one of the country's finest, best known, and most popular tourist caves. Cave paintings and artifacts indicate that the caves were in use throughout prehistory over a long period during the Middle and Later Stone Ages.

Our guide, John, led us through the caves on the Heritage Tour. He had a delightful sense of humour. We opted NOT to take the Adventure Tour that requires visitors to climb, crawl, shimmy, slide, and squeeze through tight spaces. Our first stop was the Concert Hall with its huge stalactite nicknamed Tobacco Leaves and its tall, slim stalagmite nicknamed Cleopatra’s Needle. This area was actually used as a Concert Hall for many years, but the practice was ended because of persistent vandalism. Heather from Vancouver, a professional singer, graciously serenaded us with “Summertime” – her voice and the acoustics were beautiful! John turned off all the lights and left on only the equivalent of the one candle that was used by the first explorers of the caves in the late 1700s. Pitch blackness.

We saw the Rainbow Chamber and the Drum Room and then made our way back. It was still raining outside, but no matter – we were going to be in the van for a while.

We had to make a U-turn at one point on our way due to flooding across the road. This area has had more rain in the past few days than ever before. We passed through the Hops Valley, noted for its hops growing for the beer industry. We passed through the Outeniqua Pass with more glorious views of soaring mountains and deep chasms. At George, we picked up the Garden Route, so named because this area is resplendent with flowering bushes through spring and fall. It runs all the way to Port Elizabeth. As we neared Knysna (Nees-nah), we spied the Indian Ocean. It has pushed into the land in several places, creating inland saltwater seas. These are much sought after locations for holiday homes, but some areas are government protected as there are threatened wildlife species in the areas.

We had lunch at a great restaurant down by the beach. We had some time to explore the lovely little shops down by the waterfront. Then we headed to our guest house where we are in individual little bungalows on exquisitely manicured and landscaped grounds. The electricity was out from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

We had pre-dinner drinks in Sue and Deb’s cottage next door to ours, and then had dinner in the restaurant here. The lights were still out when we arrived, so we had to read the menu by cell phone lights. Promptly at 6:00 p.m., the electricity came back on, and a great cheer of thanks went through the place. These rolling blackouts have been taking place for 18 years now. Incredible to believe.

We had a delightful dinner. The food here in South Africa has been superb – perfect portions, light, tasty preparations, perfectly fresh fruits and vegetables, and lovely presentations. A foodie would be very happy here. I had the best gelato that I've ever had. Gorgeously smooth and tasty.

The power will be out again tomorrow from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. which means no hair drying in the morning, so it’s evening showers for us.

Liz has a full day of activities lined up for us here in Knysna for tomorrow.Read more