The Complete Photos: South Africa

Animal lovers, this set is for you! The majority of our photos from South Africa are from our Kruger Park Safari. But, even when we weren't take pictures there, we were riding ostriches, visiting other reserves, looking at Dassies and Penguins at the Cape, or going to the Cape Town Aquarium.

RTW: South Africa

Food Around the World: South Africa

Perfect for a late summer dinner, Jody at Eddybles took inspiration from the multicultural cuisine of South Africa to create a delicious recipe for Curried Ostrich Burgers With Raita and Sweet Potato Relish. You too can have an osterich experience, even if it doesn't actually involve riding one like Tyler! You can also read my write-up about the foods we encountered during our three weeks in South Africa!

Bon appetite!

Waiting for take off

On a trip like this, our last few days in any country are a little bizarre. On one hand, we're are still visiting the foreign country we are currently in. On the other hand, our minds start to move on to the next country we're scheduled to visit. In addition, inevitably we end up with a long list of simple "housekeeping" type chores to take care of (buying toiletries, doing laundry, making sure we have all the tickets and visa stuff for our next stop) on the last day. All this adds up to a weird liminal state not dissimilar to what Sarah described in one of her early entries.

Yesterday, we awoke planning on going to Robben Island, the famous prison island off the coast of Cape Town, where Nelson Mandela was held for most of his 27 year imprisonment. Unfortunately, it turned out that tours of the island were sold out through early next week, so we had to scrap that plan.

Instead, we decided to make our way to the waterfront, and wander around. It was a pleasant, sunny day, but we quickly decided to check out their aquarium: Two Ocean's Aquarium. As Sarah arelady knows, I enjoy a good aquarium. And, we'd heard that the Two Ocean's Aquarium was one of the best.

Capetown's waterfront, looking back at Table Mountain.

Statues of South Africa's four Nobel Prize Winners.

As the name implies, the Two Ocean's Aquarium features fish from both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic. In addition, we had the good fortune of arriving in time to catch the seal feeding ("Dipsy, Daisy, Tea and Mullet. Up Mullet. Good seals!"), the penguin feeding and the predator fish feeding.


Rock Hopper Penguins. These penguins aren't native to South Africa, but a half dozen of them were stranded here, and taken in by the zoo.

A sea turtle. Most of my attempted to take pictures of fish and animals through the glass turned out blurry, like this.

These spdier crabs creeped me out. They're huge. Their main body is, like, the size of my head.

After that, we decided to follow up the aquarium with a trip to the movies. Sarah's been itching to see the new Harry Potter movie since it was released. And, with this being one of our last days in the comparatively modern (and English speaking) South Africa, and with the final book being released tonight at 1AM, we decided it would be a good time to see it. The movie going experience in Capetown proved to be pretty standard with teh amin difference being the fact that the items at the concession stands are still reasonably priced.

After the movie, we headed back to our hostel for pizza, beer and dominos. Since we left on our trip, we've been holding what we've dubbed the World Dominos Championship. Several times a week, on a slow evening or afternoon, we play dominos. We generally play to 100 points. But, in addition, we also have a running score with both country winners, continent winners and -eventually- a grand champion. Currently, I'm winning overall but Sarah has the lead for South Africa.

This morning, we awoke to overcast skies and chores to take care of. First, we had to pack up and check out, and arrange a ride to the airport. Then, after some tea, we had to go to the chemist to get medicine and toiletries. Then, not sure what to do with ourselves, we decided to have fish and chips and a Guiness at an Irish pub for lunch as the rain started to fall outside.

Now, we're in the Internet cafe again, finishing up our online business. Then after this, we have to go pick up our laundry then burn a few more hours until our flight.

First, we'll be flying back to Jo'burg, were we'll be in a bit of a bind. Our flight gets in right before midnight. But, our flight onward to Kenya doesn't leave until early the following morning. So, we're still trying to decide if we should check into an airport hotel for 6 hours, or just crash out in the airport itself - transit-hobo-style.

So, yup, that's how we've spent the last couple days in South Africa. And its pretty similar to how our last days in any country usually play out. Not too glamourous, but not bad.

I mean, you can't ride ostriches every day, right?

The Cape

Thanks to the wine tour in Stellenbosch, Sarah and I were feeling a little rough around the edges when we reached Capetown. As a result, we checked into our hostel, and spent a good portion of the day lying low and regrouping (and rehydrating). Later in the day, we were able to explore a little in our neighborhood. Then, later on, we met Marcia (one of the people from our safari, who had also made her way to Capetown) for a nice traditional style dinner, and to find out about her adventures since the last time we'd see each other.

The next day was our last day with Chico, so we decided to make the most of it. First up, we drove up to the base of Table Mountain, and then took the gondola to the top. The gondola ride was, as Sarah noted, "cool but discombobulating" - In addition taking its passengers up the mountain, the whole gondola also slowly rotates 360 degrees, giving everyone a full view of Table Mountain and Capetown spread out below it.

Arriving at the top, we took several moments to take in the fatastic views from the top. Capetown is one of the most scenicly beautiful cities we've ever seen. In many ways, I feel it compares to cities like Seattle or San Fransico, where everywhere you look is georgous blue bays and rising green mountains.



EDIT: Sarah's brother, Tim, was so kind as to stitch together the three photos I'd originally posted here. I've decided to replace those photos this this one. It more accurately reflects the stunning view (click on it!). Thanks Tim!

After soaking in the scenery for a bit, we took off on an impromptu hike. Initially, we'd planned on just staying up on the top of the mountain for a short bit, and then riding the gondola back down. But, after seeing their was an hour and a half hike our to McLean's Beacon on the top, we decided a short hike would do us some good. The hike also allowed us to take in all the views from different parts of table mountain. The top of the mountain is surprisingly boggy at times, but the hike was brisk and relaxing.

Me on the hike to McLean's Beacon, with a view off the other side of Table Mountain.

After finishing the hike, and riding the gondola back down, we hoped in Chico and headed for the Cape itself. After a little driving, we stopped at a small part to eat sandwiches and take in another stunning bay view.

Our lunch break view... really, Capetown is just silly with stunning views and quaint neighborhoods.

After a short bit, we arrived at the Cape Point National Park. The Cape itself is desolate and windy in all the right ways. And, as you stand on its rocky shores and stare out at its breakwaters, you can't help but imagine all the hundreds of shipwreckes that sit off the coast.

Sarah embraces the breeze at the Cape of Good Hope. Those same breezes helped create many of the 650 odd shipwreckes off the coast.

The Cape of Good Hope juts defiantly into the ocean. To the east is the Indian Ocean, to the west is the Atlantic.

First, we took in the Cape of Good Hope, which is the more famous Cape before moving on the the lighthouse covered Cape Point itself. In reality, neither cape is the southern most point of Africa, but historically they were considered to be the tip of Africa so who are we to argue, right?

Tyler and Sarah reach the most south-western point in Africa.

A Dassie. These large rodents (which are like marmets, or short-eared rabbits) scurried across the rocks around the Cape. There was also a number of savage looking baboons here, but we didn't take an photos of them, because they were scary.

Where am I again?

This photo is a little backlit, but on the left you can see the Cape of Good Hope, while on the right you have the original lighthouse perched high up on the Cape Point. Sarah took this picture from the lower, newer lighthouse.

We could have lingered at the Cape all day, enjoying its windswept beauty, but the sun was disappearing fast... and we had penguins to see!

A short drive northeast of the Cape is Boulder Beach which is famous for its colony of African Penguins. The African Penguin is also called the "Jackass Penguin," but not because they're a bunch of jerks, nor because of their fondness for performing live-endangering stunts in front of MTV camera crews. Instead, they are called Jackass Penguins because the sound they make sounds almost exactly like a donkey braying.

Braying Jackass Penguins. They were surprisingly loud, and when they made their noise, you could see their entire chest compress and expand.

This braying surprised us as we parked Chico and stepped out to find a nearby bush screaming "heehaw" at us. The park was set to close soon, but Sarah and I were still able to slip in and see the penguins. Penguins are amazingly entertaining to watch (if a bit stinky). In addition, we must have caught the tail end of breeding seasons, because their were penguins guarding nest, baby penguins and "teenage" penguins in the process of loosing their downy baby-feathers.

We were actually quite suprised by the number of penguins in the colony; especially when we looked up to see several dozen of them come flying out of the water and spilling onto the sandy beach in unison.

The main portion of the colony, though there were hundreds more in the bushes around it.
Several dozen penguins spilling onto the beach together.

"Warning, please looking under your vehicles for penguins." Note the little diagram on the lower left part of the sign.

Having enjoyed the penguins, and with the sun setting, Sarah and I made our way back to the guesthouse. It had proven to be a great (if busy) day, and the perfect send off for Chico.

Adventures in Winelands

Our friend Joe is the director of the University District Foodbank, and last year we attended their annual auction. It's a great event, with lots of wonderful auction items (you can support it this year if you live in Seattle and have a free evening on October 5th). And though we were madly saving money, we ended up winning one of the wine-related items--a plethora of South African wines wine and wine-related accoutrements (openers, a wine chiller fridge) with another friend. Thus our first introduction to many South African wines. And after two months in super-light beer to no alcohol countries, we were ready to hit wine country, or Winelands, again.


Typical Winelands scenery. It also made us realize how long we'd been travelling--last time we'd been in the Southern Hemisphere, it had been grape-picking time!

With our trusty Chico, we headed south and spent two nights in Stellenbosch, one of the main cities in the Wineland region about one hour outside of Capetown. With little time, we decided to do a bit of winetasting at one of the local restaurants that night with a wine tour the next day of four local wineries.

I have to admit, I have officially made the leap from wine appreciator to, well, a bit of a crazy person. We got to the restaurant and saw you could get tasting pours of three whites and three reds for 30 rand (~$5). But we were already familiar with three of them from our wine auction wine and I didn't want repeats on our whirlwind tour of the region's wines. Fortunately, the bartender was willing to humor us and allowed us to personalize our wine tasting...twice. So with my trusty notebook for making tasting notes at hand (strike two to being a bit of a crazy person), we dove in. Here are a couple favorites:

(Note: I forgot those notes; I'll add soon!)


The next day, we got ready to go on our wine tour. We'd been reluctant to be part of an organized tour in New Zealand because they were not inexpensive and we really wanted to go to certain wineries that appealed to us rather than the large-scale ones we thought we'd see on tour. But with our time constraints, and the hazards of driving around while wine tastings, we decided to give it a go. Lucas, our Dutch guide, picked us up along with two students from Saskatchewan, a British couple, and five Dutch couples/friends. We'd visit four wineries in the region (including Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek) and have a cellar tour at one, along with lunch and a cheese tasting.

The first stop was at Boschendal, one of the oldest wineries in South Africa. Apparently, the Dutch first started growing wine there, but were producing really low quality wines. So they invited some French to emigrate down, granted that they would bring their wine-making skills with them, so Franschhoek, or French Corner, was born. And because we were there over Bastille Day weekend, the town was decked out in the tricolor flag and people wearing berets.

While there, we tasted five wines: a blanc de blanc (or unoaked white blend), Chardonnay, Shiraz Rose, a red blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and a 2005 Shiraz. And, because I was curious after tasting one in New Zealand, we also got a taste of the Blanc de Noir, a white wine made with red wine grapes, rose-esque but with a sweeter smelling nose. Of the tastings, I liked the Chardonnay and Rose the most, but the one side to being one a tour is that it made it a lot harder to concentrate on the wines. It was much more social, and because we actually knew the most about wine of all the others in the group, we ended up sharing our knowledge with others we sat with. I was afraid they would think we were pretentious or killjoys, but it actually was fun to talk to people about the wines as we drank. Also, Tyler and I normally share tasting pours, so we drank more wine than we normally would at four wineries.


Our first tasting at Boschendal, one of the oldest wineries in the region.

After lunch, we went to what was probably my favorite of the batch, Dieu Donne Vineyards. Though I was disappointed to find that they had sold out of both their sparkling (they call Methode Cap Classique in South Africa, since it can't be Champagne) and their late harvest dessert wine, Tyler and I managed to make it through all nine wines they had for tasting by sharing our tastes instead of just doing five each as the others did. The highlight for me was definitely their 2003 Shiraz, light tasting but with good spice and a long finish. I also liked their Chardonnay quite a bit which had a toasty nose and good oaking for a butter-y, biscuit-y taste. Surprisingly, as much as we had enjoyed unoaked Chardonnays in New Zealand, I found theirs to be too acidic rather than the fruitier taste charactistic of the Kiwi versions. They also had a nice Pinotage, which is the cultivar specific to South Africa, a cross-breed of Pinot Noir and Shiraz. It was dark fruits with some mineral tastes and a little spice, with a long dry finish. Overall, their reds impressed me more than their whites, but it was pretty solid across the board.


Wine-stained barrels at Dieu Donne Vineyards in Fraschhoek



Appreciating a red and the views at Dieu Donne


Our third visit was to probably the most well-known South African wine in America, Goats do Roam, one of the labels of the Fairview Winery. It's a cheeky take on the French Cote du Rhone, and one the French were none to happy about, though they've all made friends again since. In addition to the Goats do Roam range, they also have an Italian range called Agostinelli, a Spice Route range of spicier wines, as well as some under the Fairview label. Again, by splitting our tasting, we tasted a good number (14 all told) of wines. I enjoyed them all, though most I would categorize as being fun, easy drinkers, with a consistent spiciness among all the reds we had. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing terribly complex either. The best of the batch in my mind were: Fairview Sauvignon Blanc, with nice bright acidic gruit and some green pepper taste; Fairview Mourvedre, which was a juicier red, with some nice white pepper spiciness, the Fairview Pinotage Viognier, a red blend with a dash of the floral Viognier for a spicy, juicy red; and the Agostinelli label Barbera, with nice fruit, spice and some acidity. But award for best name was the "Bored Doe" as part of the Goats do Roam label.


Goats actually do roam at the Goats do Roam winery

Our final stop was at the Seidelberg Wine Estate, which was until about 10 years ago the De Leuwen Jagt Winery; they changed the name for the international market that couldn't pronounce the Dutch words for "Lion Hunter." We tasted six wines there, and had a good everyday Sauvignon Blanc, a decent Pinotage that probably needed more age, and a Reserve Syrah which was very good, with a velvety mouthfeel and good spice. I was a little surprised to find that they age some wines in stainless steel containers with oak staves to re-create barrel conditions. The one we tasted, a Chardonnay, was way too oaky for my tastes.


Vines leading the way to Seidelberg Wine Estate


Tasting dessert wine at sunset with the whole crew

As much as I enjoy South African wines, I do have to say they have been less of a revelation than New Zealand wines. I don't know if it's because we have some more familiarity with them or because we just had less time and money to search out really unique wines, but many of those we tasted were good but not "I've got to find a way to get this in the States!" great. But we did have a great, inexpensive bottle last night recommended at a wine shop (Post House Bluish Black, a Bordeaux-style blend), so I'm sure more great finds are out there. Fortunately, many more seem to be available in Seattle, so even if we didn't have them here, they can still bring back memories of our time tooling around wine country in South Africa.

Meerkats and Ostriches

One thing we've noticed with traveling: All the cool things seem to take place first thing in the morning. So, it wasn't surprising to find ourselves waking up at the crack of dawn yet again. This time, we were on our way to meet up with Grant M.Mc Ilrath, AKA "the Meerkat Man."

As his website says:

"Grant M. Mc Ilrath - A.K.A - The Meerkat Man has spent more time working with wild meerkats (over 12 years in 2005), then anybody else in the world, and on two subspecies.

He has co-authored, numerous scientific publications (over 14 with Cambridge University Britain, University of Pretoria South Africa). Recent wildlife documentary film experience, includes work with National Geographic, BBC and Discovery Channel. Meerkat Manor and various other films on meerkats / suricates were made possible by the initial establishment of study groups by Grant M. Mc Ilrath - A.K.A - The Meerkat Man as detailed in included testimonials."

Currently, Grant's main project is Meerkat Magic. With Meerkat Magic, he takes small groups of tourists out into the fields outside of Oudtshoorn, South Africa. There, he has a small community of Meerkats that he has acclimated to his presence. And there you watch the Meerkats up close. Very up close.

The morning starts with you sitting in lawn chairs near their dens, as Grant talks about them and the sun slowly rises. Then, about the same time you're convinced that the Meerkats aren't going to show, they start to appear.

Most people are familiar with Meerkats only because of Timon from the Lion King. But, actual Meerkats are highly sociable mammels in the same family as Mongooses. They live in small matriarchal family groups, and (very endearingly) stand on two legs to sun themselves.

Anyhow, after the Meerkats awaken and sun themselves (just a few feet away from where we sit), they began to run around and hunt for food, with us following close behind. Thew whole time, the Meerkat Man is telling us about their lives and habits, while occasionally making cooing and purring noises and swirling his hands to calm the nearby meerkats. The whole situation was surreal and wonderful. And, literally, it was a one of a kind experience since that particular subspecies is only found in that valley... and never lets humans get that close to them.

Unfortunately, since the Meerkat Man has an agreement with National Geographic, we were unable to take pictures ourselves. He took several for us, but has yet to upload them to his website. So, until then, I'll just share some picture of me riding an ostrich...

Yeeehaw!!!!

After Meerkat Magic, Sarah and I went to an ostrich farm where we took a tour. Part of the tour was allowing people to try riding an ostrich. You had to be under 75 kilos though to ride one, so that ruled out the well-feed South African family that was on the tour with us. So, it fell on my shoulders to demonstrate the fine art of ostrich riding.

The put a bag over the ostriches head while you climb on. Ostriches are so massively stupid that they basically can't function when they have a bag over their head.

Once the bag comes off, the ostrich suddenly realizes it has a human sitting on its back, and takes off running. I had to hold onto its wings, with my legs hooked over its knees and "leaned back like I'm riding a Harley."

The rest of tour was interesting too. We got to try standing on ostrich eggs and watched a short ostrich race.

Sarah stands on an ostrich egg. Another guy in our tour group weighed about three times as much as Sarah, and he was able to stand on them without them breaking.

The ostrich race. I could have beaten these guys.

After a day of ostriches and meerkats, we hit the road again. Our next stop was Stellenboch... wine country!

Valley of Desolation--EDITED to include new zebra pic

Idly flipping through our South African guidebook, I found something en route to the coast that I had to see: the Valley of Desolation. Hearing a name like that, could you resist? So we left Bloemfontein and headed south for Graaf Reinet, a name that can only be understood by locals if I tried to say it with the most extreme Afrikaans accent I could muster.

We drove about six hours (see Tyler's entry below for more details on the South African driving experience) and arrived in the Karoo, a semi-desert with strange rock outcroppings. The layout of many rural South African towns we encountered seem to have a common theme: township for the black South Africans, a main CDB (central business district), and a big Dutch Reform church. At first, I was surprised to find townships outside of the major urban areas, but when I thought back to the long history of apartheid, it made a sad kind of sense.

We found a bed for the night, at a guesthouse run by a nice, retired South African couple. It was comfortable and pleasant, but felt a little like staying at someone else's grandparents house. Straightaway, we decided to head back out and hit two of the three things we hoped to do in G-R in the Karoo National Park: wildlife viewing area and the view of the Valley of Desolation. We decided to see the animals first and try to see the Valley at sunset.

I had low hopes for animal viewing. They don't have the big, obvious animals to view (like elephants or giraffes), we had no guide, and I hadn't had a lot of luck sighting animals on safari. But we saw a bunch of great creatures, including more monkeys, lots of ostriches which look amazing when they run, lots of different kinds of antelopes, bat-eared foxes (which we unfortunately didn't get a photo of), meerkats, and lots of birds.


Cute vervet monkey we saw right after entering the park


Ostriches


Meerkats watching us watch them


Mother and baby kudus


We were having so much fun finding animals, we had to rush out to catch sunset at the Valley of Desolation. We drove up and up and up then rushed up the path to one of the viewpoints. Then noticed it was really cold...and windy. Fortunately, it is probably best not to dwell in Desolation for too long, so we took the speed tour of the viewpoints and then rushed back to the car.


Aptly named Valley of Desolation


Another fantastic sunset


As we left the park, I saw an animal ahead near the road. At first I pointed it out to Tyler but said it was "probably just another antelope of some sort." But right after saying that, I saw stripes. It was the Cape Mountain Zebra. And there were three of them. They are endangered, and it's rare to see them, especially three. When we told the woman at the guesthouse, she said she'd never seen one in this area as long as she's lived here! Unfortunately, it was dark and the photos I quickly tried to snap off really didn't turn out. I probably should have just enjoyed the view, but when I enlarged this on the computer, I could vaguely see it. Maybe you can too.


I know this looks like a pitch-black picture, but if you enlarge you might get a vague glimpse of the endangered Cape Mountain Zebra


The next morning after a pleasant breakfast of tea and rusks (a common South African breakfast food, essentially a twice-baked biscuit that's like biscotti), we headed out for a short hike. We didn't have a ton of time, but it was nice to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. The trail ended up being on the far side of the Valley we'd seen the night before, and it was fun to see the rock formations from the backside as well.


The backside of the Valley of Desolation peaks


The African landscape has been full of really thorn-y plants like this. Ouch!


Another hiking view, with another rondeval-shaped rock. This happens because magma pushed up through fissures and cracks in sedimentary rock, which has been eroding away.

We wished we could have hiked all day, looking at animal tracks and enjoying walking in the Karoo, but we had to continue to make time towards the Cape, so we got back in the car for a beautiful drive to Oudtschoorn, famous for ostriches. I'll report back on ostrich steak after dinner tonight!

Zebra Addendum: My brother managed to lighten up the Cape Mountain Zebra picture so you can better see what we saw that night. Enjoy, and thanks Tim!

On the road again

Some of the best times we've had on this trip have involved our extended road trip through New Zealand and then Tasmania. So, after some discussion, we decided that we wanted to rent a car for the rest of our South African adventure. So, before we left on our safari, we made arrangements to have a rental car delivered to our guesthouse the day after we got back.

While on the safari, another member of our group (Greg from Portland) pointed out to us that South Africa had a disproportionate number of Volkswagon Golfs. Apparently, in South Africa, they follow the rule of "if its not broke, don't fix it" and as a result VW has continued producing the same style of Golf since sometime in the 1970's.

As you can imagine, we were delighted when we discovered that our rental car was a brand-new, white VW Golf. Or, "Chico" as we've come to call it.

Chico and I.

After buying some basic food, we hit the road. That said, we still didn't have much of an idea about where we were going. We knew that we were heading south to the coast, and then Cape Town. Furthermore, we knew we needed to drop Chico off in Capetown in about a week. So, rather arbitrarily, we chose Bloemfontein.

With our first desitination picked out, we hit the road. While in India, we'd picked up a couple of MP3 discs loaded with Bollywood tunes. And, as luck would have it, Chico had an MP3 player. So, rather incongruously, it became our soundtrack for our roadtrip. And, when tearing across the deserts of South Africa, it seemed to worked especially well.

One thing we've noticed: While New Zealand might be the King of Campgrounds, South Africa is the King of Rest Stops. Their Rest Stops are these enormous and elaborate affairs which generally include, but aren't limited to a gas station, a small store, a fast food place, a play area and park, an ATM and the largest bathrooms I've ever seen this side of Vegas.

(As a side note, South Africa is making at bid at being the King of Meat too. On a way to our safari, we stopped at a fast food place for breakfast called Steers. There we purchased a "breakfast sandwich" that contained bacon, sausage, egg, hashbrowns, BBQ sauce, thousand island dressing, a tomato AND a hamburger patty. Yikes! OK, now back on topic...)

Bloemfontein didn't really have anything of note in it (though, apparently, JRR Tolkien was born there). But it was effectively halfway between Jo-burg and the coast, and would provide a good jumping off point for the rest of our road trip. Plus, it was a big enough town that we figured we might be able to find an internet cafe.

It did turn out to have an internet cafe, though it proved a little tricky to find (our last few entries were made there... if they seem terse, its because we spent a long time wandering around Bloemfontein looking for it). Our hostel ended up being a loft in an old military base. It would have been a very cool place, if the people running it weren't trying so hard to make it have that "hostel vibe." As it was, we weren't sad to leave early the next day.

Back on the road, Sarah pointed out to me a place called Graaf-Reinet to me: "Look, hon, it has a place called the Valley of Desolation."

So, of course, that's where we were going!

Sarah's going to talk more about Graaf-Reinet, so I won't detail what we saw and did there. But, it was quite charming, and proved to be a wonderful place to spend the afternoon and following morning. And, it was only the slighest bit desolate.

The following morning, we hit the road again. By this point, we notice something: Every road in South Africa looks like this...



If you just repeated this picture about 30 times, it would accurately convey how the first two days of driving felt.

Luckily, no sooner had we made this crushing realization then we started to near the coast, and things started to change a bit. There were more hills, and there were actually curves int he road. In addition, things began to get a little greener and the number of ostriches increased greatly.

Our next stop was Oudtshoorn. Oudtshoorn is known mainly for one thing: Ostriches. This is ostrich country. Big-time. As we wound our way into Oudtshoorn, we passed flock after flock of ostriches. (Do you use the word "flock" for ostriches? Maybe you say "herd" or "gaggle" ...or something like "dufflgang" or "spaarenraft.")

As we neared the town, I got to watch Sarah's eye's light up as we came across something neither of us thought we'd ever see: A group of farm hands leading a dufflgang of ostriches down the street!



So, that brings us to where we are now. We checked into a guesthouse in Oudtshoorn that has pretty much anything you'd ever want out of a hostel: Fireplace. Bar. Book Exchange. Gift shop. Kitchen. Pool. Pool table. Internet cafe. Travel Agency. Ostrich BBQ (or Braai, as they are called here).

Tomorrow, we are getting up early to watch Meercats at Meercat Magic™. After that, we go to an ostrich farm. And, if I'm feeling adventurous, I might even ride an ostrich. It's true. Stay tuned.

OK, off to the ostrich BBQ.