Schoemanshoek

I slept quite well despite the heat of the night, and got up for a hot shower. As I came out to the sink to brush my teeth, one of the hostel's black and white cats was waiting on a stool by the sink and indicated with her head for me to turn the tap on. As I did so she lapped water from the tap - this was an endearing early morning encounter. We then had a very nice cooked breakfast prepared for us and boarded the truck for the next leg of our journey.
We drove for about 30 minutes and then arrived at Cango caves in the mountains. This is a very ancient set of large caves, the front caverns of which have been occupied by the very earliest hominids and human ancestors as well as many other animals through various climatic conditions. There was a fascinating and well put together exhibition with much information about the caves' living and geological history and I took photos of most of the information boards to read later. We then walked up to the top level of the building to where the entrance to the cave was. We had a humorous and informative guide that took us through the cave network. First there were life size models of an ancestral stone age tribe living and cooking in the cave. The guide showed us an ancient rock painting of an elephant and below a stylised man leaping. Then we moved up to a huge cave chamber and walked down a flight of stairs to reach the chamber floor. After describing some features of the cave with a torch, he flicked a switch and the whole cavern was lit up to reveal its geological treasures. There were curtains of stalactites reaching down from the ceiling and a very tall column where the stalactite had met the stalagmite reaching up. This was called the 'Leaning Tower of Pisa'. On the other side was a huge curtain of white mineralised columns known as the church organ. On another side there was an amazing area of large smoothed, twisted rock which looked like a sculpture with more stalactite curtains at the top. We passed more acropolis pillar sized mineral columns with stalactite curtains before entering the most astonishing chamber which defies description. There was a big concave recess with all manner of mineral formations at the back of the cavern. On the left side there was an enormous column with amazing rock twists and curves forming its sides and a curtain of stalactites around its top. Nearby was another enormous formation of mineral curtains that had combined in a tree canopy like shape which gave the formation its name of the 'Willow Tree'. The willow tree had taken over 1.5 million years to form. This truly was an awe inspiring sight. We moved on to another chamber with big rock formations reaching down to the original floor of the cave which had gaps in the rocks reaching down 15 metres below the floor level. We then entered the penultimate chamber of the tour known as the bridal chamber where smaller columns had formed the vague look of a four posted bridal bed. These were more delicate but equally beautiful formations. We then entered the final chamber of our tour where the adventurous cavers could enter more narrow cave chamber entrances. There was a thin mineral curtain here that was translucent to light and formed a circular shape known as the 'Drum'. The guide pounded his hand on this to create a resonant drumming sound. This cave system was stunning and gave one a sense of the enormous expanses of time taken to form the immense columns and mineral curtains. The stalactites and stalagmites only grow by a couple of millimetres a year in South Africa's dry climate and were therefore all at least hundreds of thousands, if not, millions of years old. It also gave you a sense of the long evolution and countless generations of our hominid ancestors who visited the caves and hunted and gathered in the surrounding valleys and mountains. The climatic changes also caused different animals to occupy the area over time including a now extinct giant zebra.
We left the caves and drove to a nearby ostrich farm with a visitor centre. The guide told us about how the ostrich provided feathers, meat and leather for the farm. We were shown an egg incubation room and I was actually able to film an ostrich chick hatching. Their large eggs hold the equivalent calories of 24 chicken eggs. We then went outside to view the ostrich on the farm. We met a 'human friendly' ostrich called Betsy. I, and others, were able to give Betsy a 'hug' while it fed as well as feed it from our hands, although I didn't hold my hand straight enough and got a sore beak nip on my fingers. A wild ostrich is not so friendly and can disembowel you with the long nail on one of it's two toes. You can't outrun its 70kph running speed and so have to either climb a tree or lie down on your stomach with your hands behind your neck to survive. The first long section of an ostrich leg is actually still its foot which I hadn't realised.
We then looked at some Australian emu for comparison and then at an ostrich family of an adult male, female and young ostrich. Finally we entered a seated section by a large pen of adult ostrich. I, and others, were then able to receive what is known as an ostrich 'neck massage' where we held a bucket of feed while a number of ostrich pecked over your neck and shoulders. This was quite a close up experience of these magnificent and unique birds.
We left the ostrich farm and drove to a nearby supermarket where we bought our lunch and bought in food for our cook group duties for the next two evening dinners and morning breakfasts.
After lunch we drove on through yet more mountain ranges and down through an impressive mountainous valley back onto flat lands heading towards the coast again. We came to a large lagoon inlet from the sea and turned off into our next campsite with a lovely grassy camping area surrounded by trees and with a view over the lagoon. I pitched my tent overlooking the lagoon where African sacred ibis were feeding Two brown Hadada Ibis also fed for insects on our campground. We then rested up playing football and frisbee until we cooked pesto pasta for dinner. I played 'keepy-upy' football with Grant, Graham and Often which was great fun then chatted with my fellow travellers as darkness descended and the stars came out. We saw a big owl on a nearby fence, shone our torches on it and watched it for several minutes, its large eyes reflecting the torchlight before it flew of with its large, fanned wings. We retired early to our tents as the mosquitoes started biting. I slowly fell asleep with the insect chorus calling all around the tent.Read more