Oudtshoorn

This morning was a reasonably early start yet none of us seemed to struggle getting out of bed as there was only us in our room last night, so we all got to bed early. I am glad the others also aren’t party animals meaning that we all get enough sleep each day. The sun was shining through the curtains this morning even though it was not even 7.00 yet so we knew it was going to be a nice day. We headed downstairs for our breakfast which we chose last night, so I had French toast with bacon; it was not the cinnamon French toast I thought it was but more of a sort of eggy toast. All of us were packed and ready to move on 20 minutes earlier than we had expected; seems like we are getting the hang of this living out of a backpack thing and organising ourselves better, so it is easier to access the things that we need.

We headed to Oudtshoorn today via a road called the Outeniqua Pass which was a winding road through the beautiful mountains; Jessie and Annie said it was like travelling through New Zealand with all its natural beauty. It is amazing how

mountains look so beautiful even though, on the surface, they are just inclined ground; when near them you can’t help but feel relaxed. Oudtshoorn seems to be large for its ostrich farms; just imagine driving down the road and replacing every field of cattle or sheep you would normally see with just fields of ostrich, it is quite bizarre really. They are also big on their ostrich riding here and part of me wants to do it as my grandad, Eddie, done it when he was over here, so considering I never met him, it would be nice just to experience something that he had done as if I could relate in some way but the other part of me does not want to support the riding as their skeletal system doesn’t seem like it is made to carry weight.

We arrived at our backpackers around 9.30 to quickly be shown around and meet the owner who is man from Wales called Matt with his 2 golden Labradors called Seren and Whitey. The

backpackers seem nice and, once again, we are the only people in our room and even though they are bunkbeds (there are 4 in total) the top bunk is so high up, that the bottom bunks may as well be single beds as you can comfortably sit on them without banging your head - just don’t try jumping on them. There is also a small pool in the backyard which we can use although he did say that they are currently in the middle of quite a severe drought so not to splash and keep the water in the pool. It is hard to imagine what it is really like being in a drought coming from England, but I guess it is just a matter of watching our water usage whilst we are here. We left the hostel almost as quick as we arrived so that we could make the most of our day in this part of Africa. We started off by going to the Cango Wildlife Conservation Centre which is the equivalent of a zoo with a breeding programme to try to help increase the number of the animals whilst also supporting quite a few animal charities in Africa. At the conservation centre, the main animal attraction is the crocodiles and they have a grand total of 13; we managed to get the opportunity of watching them be fed which was pretty cool as they try to encourage their natural hunting behaviour by holding the meat on a stick above the water hence making them launch out of the water for their food. They also do croc cage diving at the centre which I also managed to see but the crocs were not bothered in the slightest by this man in a cage in their enclosure which made me laugh slightly. Morgan was going to do it but after seeing how uninterested the crocs were, he decided to do a different interaction instead. There were quite a range of animals, but my favourites were the leopard, as it is one of Africa’s big 5 but the chance of seeing it is so slim in the wild due to their incredible camouflage and ease of moving around between reserves; she looked so proud as she strode about in her enclosure and jumped on the trees and platforms. My next favourite must be the 6 cheetah cubs which were so sweet; they were born in October so still had a bit of fluffy fur on top of their heads and were so playful with each other. This is the interaction that Jessie and Morgan opted to go in for instead of the croc diving; me and Annie watched, and they just looked like large cats with their playfulness, need for attention and love of sleep. The zoo also has a snow-white Bengal tiger which the guide said is only 1 of 15 left in the entire world, so it felt like a privilege to see her. The reason there are so few is because of poachers, their lack of camouflage but also to be this colour, both parents need to carry the recessive gene which is obviously a low chance as well.

We left the zoo after having some lunch, which for me was a spinach and feta cheese toastie in pita bread and headed to Cango Caves for the adventure tour. I decided to sit this one out and read outside as I realise that I need to be more careful with what I am doing as otherwise, my money will not make it to the end of my journey and, to be perfectly honest, caves don’t particularly interest me so I thought I would save my money on this one although the others said they enjoyed themselves and it was quite challenging and warm down there.

We then headed back to the hostel, quickly got changed into our swimwear, reapplied sun cream before going around to the pool with a pink gin and lemonade to cool off and sunbathe with my

Kindle. My phone, which doubles up as my Kindle, started overheating in the sun, so I took advantage of the waterproof case and took it in the pool with me so it instantly cooled which made the others laugh but it worked, so who cares. We must have spent around an hour by the pool before we had to get ready for dinner but even this late in the day, the sun was still scorching and even after it got dark, I could have quite easily continued to lay round the pool as it was still warm.

For dinner tonight, we were going to a slightly more upper-class restaurant called the 'Black Swan' which was about a 10 minutes' drive down the road. On the menu was an ostrich steak so I had to opt for that as I have heard it is incredibly lean and tasty and they were certainly right. Although it took a bit of effort to cut, once it was in your mouth, you hardly had to chew; the meat tasted so fresh and had a slight sweetness to it although that was probably the brandy that they basted it in. The steak was served with potato wedges and a side salad; the presentation was amazing. This certainly was not one of my cheaper meals but for that plus my drinks – water and a glass of red – it only came to £20 so it was worth it, especially for the taste of that meat.

Once we returned to the hotel, all of us ended up going into a food coma, so we are all now in bed at just gone 10.00, which although

early, we are up at 4.30 tomorrow as Jeff wants to be on the road by 5.00 for Cape Town as it is a 5 hour drive, so to be fair, the early night is easily justified. So that it is from me for today in my tired state.

Next point of call, Cape Town with a stop for breakfast before I hope.