Swellendam

Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, South Africa
Friday, January 15, 2016

This morning we set out to visit the Cango Caves system some 30 kms north of Oudtshoorn, just us and about 500 Frenchmen on Harley Davidsons, or so it seemed! Thankfully, the tour was in English. The caverns were gradually formed some 20million years ago in Pre Cambrian limestone under the Swartberg mountains and discovered by a Karoo farmer Jacobus van Zyll sliding down a rope with an oil lamp in 1780. It wasn't until the 1960/70s that the Caves were opened up to mass tourism and a careful balancing act has been struck to safeguard the amazing formations that they contain. You can only visit cavern one, which actually consists of several chambers and access to the other four are carefully controlled as the calcium carbonate formations are still active in various fantastic guises. One can see an interpretive film to fill in the gaps that are not covered by the tour. We were unsure quite what to expect, but it was certainly worth the visit and the caverns are indeed a wonder of nature.
We followed this with a visit to the Cango Ostrich Farm conveniently placed on the return trip to town. Again, there was a degree of reluctance, but as I said to Peter, we cannot visit the Ostrich capital of the world without seeing an Ostrich! This is a show farm as opposed to a commercial enterprise and the birds live a full life of up to 70 years. These days they are farmed for their meat and leather, the feathers being a very incidental offshoot. Close too, they are intriguing creatures with a real character of their own. The males are the grander of the species with their beautiful black and white plumage, but as our guide stated, the smaller brown females are definitely the sharper of the two. This is of course relative, as their eyes are larger than their brains and her quote of the day was that 'the lights are on, but there is nobody at home!' The eggs are enormous and extremely strong. It takes the chick 10-12 days to break out of the shell and a fully grown man of 200lbs can stand on one without breaking it. We enjoyed the tour in the company of a young American honeymoon couple from Chicago and a family with two young daughters from Cape Town. We made a jolly group and it was both fun and illuminating. Ostriches were fed, kissed and ridden and a lot learned in between!
I must be strong and try the meat this evening. It is on the menu here and there will be no better time to break my duck, or ostrich, if you get my drift!
This afternoon seemed the right time to visit one of the feather palaces built during the boom period with money made from 'ostrich gold'. The Le Roux Town House was built in 1908 as a weekend retreat for the farming family. All these homes were constructed of sandstone, which was the local stone of abundance and no expense was spared by these feather millionaires to proclaim their wealth to the world. All the furniture and fixtures and fittings were ordered from catalogues and the contents of the entire house shipped from England to Mossel Bay, the nearest port and brought overland by Ox Cart. The family changed nothing over the years and continued to use it as their weekend retreat from their even larger home on the farm until the early 60s, when the Oudtshoorn Museum Trust purchased it. The furniture on show now is not original as the family obviously kept it, but the wallpapers curtains and carpets are all still there in a fabulous state of preservation, including an amazing bordered Wilton carpet specially woven to exactly fit the unusually shaped parlour. I suspect the fact that it was only used at weekends, plus the warm dry climate, has helped here. All the wooden doors, architraves and built in furniture are painted to resemble top quality wood in trompe l'oeil tradition. It was very much the fashion with the very wealthy to do so, as it required a master craftsman at great expense, to achieve such an effect. Art Nouveau stained glass is on show throughout the house, edged in copper as opposed to lead, again as it was a more expensive medium. Trying to outdo the 'Joneses' has been going on from time immemorial!
However, the piece de resistance for Peter, was in the study (probably no surprise there!). A beautiful wooden filing cabinet stood in the corner, which he really coveted. Some like diamonds, others............ On enquiry of our guide, the piece was donated to the museum for use here in the house by a retired accountant. Well, would you ever!
I am sitting tapping away to you on the verandah outside our room. The rooms here are situated round around a lovely lawned oblong courtyard, with trees to shade them and a central fountain tinkling away in the background. It is all very relaxing, warm and comfortable and we shall make the most of it all before moving on tomorrow to Knysna on the Indian Ocean and the Garden Route.Read more