Overlanding Through Africa

From there, we drove on through the Karoo region. I’m sure the scenery was amazing, but we couldn’t see it through all the rain and low cloud! We were heading for a campsite in the town of Ooudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of the world. At the turn of the 20th century, it was full of feather barons who grew rich from the popularity of ostrich feathers to adorn hats and other garments. The place still has a thriving ostrich business today, with the birds being farmed for their leather and their meat, as well as their feathers. Ostriches have no oils in their feathers to make them waterproof. This is not a problem in their natural habitat where the climate is dry and, when it does rain, they can shelter under trees. Here in the open, though, it was very sad to see hundreds of very bedraggled ostriches standing in or wading through muddy fields!

Just before we arrived at our camp, we stopped to get pizza for lunch. Today was a day when lunch was included in our itinerary. The plan had been for Ivan to rustle something up for us, but the weather was so bad that it was decided that Intrepid would buy us pizza instead. We weren’t offered a choice, so we ended up with chicken and sweet chutney! Left to our own devices, none of us would have chosen this!

When we got to our campsite, we asked about possible upgrades. None of us fancied a night under canvas in the teeming rain! We were offered a two-bedroomed chalet for the four of us with kitchen, bathroom, and lounge, for a cost of less than £10 each. It was a no-brainer! We put our stuff in our chalet and then went to find Ivan to suggest that he cook dinner in our kitchen. He and Ernest were ahead of us – they had rented the chalet next door! Despite there being a room for her, René still opted to stay in her tent!! Weird!!

We left Ivan to prepare dinner and watch the French Open (it was depressing to see how warm and sunny it was in Paris!), while we got back on the truck to visit the Cango Caves about a 45-minute drive away. Again, I’m sure the scenery on route was lovely, but we couldn’t see it!!

The Cango Caves are found in Precambrian limestone in the foothills of the Swartberg mountain range. The main cave is one of South Africa's finest, best known, and most popular tourist caves and attracts many visitors from overseas. Although the extensive system of tunnels and chambers go on for over 6 kilometres, only about a quarter of this is open to visitors. You can only enter the caves if you are accompanied by a guide. There is an adventure route with narrow gaps and long tunnels, which is only suitable for fit, skinny people, and a heritage route, which we did 😂!!

Cave paintings and artefacts indicate that the caves were in use throughout prehistory over a long period during the Middle and Later Stone Ages. They were rediscovered in 1780 by a local farmer named Jacobus Van Zyl, who was looking for a missing cow!

The stalagmite and stalactite formations in the caves are beautiful. Our guide, Alfred, was very knowledgeable and entertaining, and our hour-long tour passed very quickly in his company!!

After the tour, it was back on the truck to return to the campsite. We spent an hour or so in our chalet catching up on emails, etc. before venturing next door for dinner. It was such a good decision to take the chalets – it was teeming down!! Dinner was roast lamb, potatoes, vegetables, and salad. Ernest and Ivan were watching sports, so after dinner, we went back to our chalet. Timo was searching for a music channel on TV. Instead, he found 20/20 English county cricket! So, we spent the rest of the evening teaching him all about a sport he had never seen before. He seemed genuinely interested, asking clarification questions when he wasn’t sure about something! 😂Read more