Friday was up early, as we needed to be at the pick up point for about 8am, and traffic can be a bit heavy on the road to cape town passing the University. But we managed to avoid some of it by taking back roads, and then took a while to find the right place. Gilly dropped me off, the Baz bus was due about 8.15, but is notorious for being late. Only a 15 minute wait, not bad. It is a 20 seater shuttle, with a trailer on the back for all the luggage, but today the bus was fairly empty, and Mark our driver was a real tour guide giving us lots of information. We headed off and passed the Townships, which seemed better than the areas i had seen in Jinja, here they had electricity supplied to their huts, and it all looked clean – metal and wooden huts. Then not too much further, and the first stop, people off to Stellenbosch (the winelands).
Our route took us up some big mountains and then 30 mins later a pick up, from near Hermanus – a great place to see whales (season may – nov), or to go shark diving (in a cage). From here it is a long drive to Swellendam, made longer by road works, 3 sections, where you can wait 20-30 mins for the lights to change if you’re unlucky. And there is much job creation, having men or women waving flags (at night it is switching torches on/off) warning you that you are approaching the lights. At the lights you can not go until they are green, there are cones blocking the lane, and the man has to move them before you can go. We were fortunate and didn’t have to wait long. This route took us through the fruit trees, where they were laden with apples ready to be picked. The Grade 1 apples are all exported, and we passed the turning for the company that make Appletizer and Grapetizer! We were also fortunate to see the finishing line for the Coastal Mountain Bike competition, but no racers were seen (they obviously were not on the roads!!).
Just as we thought that things were going well, we were pulled over by the Traffic Police, they were doing checks on all passenger vehicles, and another vehicle was also stopped. They were checked first (and failed), so all we could do was wait, they did a thorough check of licence/paperwork, fire extinguishers, brakes, wheel alignment, windscreen and wipers, and under the bonnet, and under the vehicle – as i said thorough – but we passed, so after an hour we were on our way.
We picked up Lucy (Australian) in Swellendam – a great place to see the Cape Dutch architecture – and then we picked up Annuka and her dad (Finnish) from the Garden Route Game Lodge, where we saw zebra, bontebok (a type of antelope that are very specific to the Swellendam region and are protected), but again no rhino to be seen nor the giraffe. We were fortunate as we headed back along the road to see the two elephant though.
Our route took us along passed the mountains on our left (which go all along the garden route), and through farmland, which had cattle, sheep and even a couple of ostrich farms, on to Mossel Bay – where there is a post office tree, originally used by sailors to leave messages. Here we had a change of passengers (lucy got off here), before heading to George (where there is an airport, the railway museum...not loads else). This is the pick up point for the shuttle to Oudtshoorn, and was my stop.
As the bus was over an hour late, we were quickly off up the Outeniqua pass – amazing mountain range to cross with the current road, only built in the 1940’s. Oudtshoorn is in the Klein Karoo region, and it is in an intermountain basin, the area looks the desert area as seen in many western films, it gets 330 days of sunny weather, and is also the Ostrich Capital of the world. So dinner that night was a bbq of ostrich steak and ostrich sausages! Annuka and her dad were also here in Oudsthoorn, and like me had decided that the trip we would take the next day would not be the 54km cycle ride, or even the 32km cycle ride starting at Cango Caves, but the shuttle.
Saturday was a glorious day, so after breakfast we were taken up the mountain to Cango Caves, where some would do the cycle ride back down after visiting the caves (and some were taken up the Swartberg Pass for the 54km ride!). At the caves some did the adventure route where you could “slip” through some smaller gaps, and explore further into the caves, but Annuka, her dad and i decided to do the more gentle Standard tour, which was more leisurely look around the first 7 caves. In the first cave, the Karoo people had lived, and then the 2nd cave was a great hall which until about 15 years ago held concerts because of the acoustics, which our guide showed us by singing for us. The concerts were stopped as people kept wandering off and taking “souvenirs” home. The temperature of the caves remained a steady 19 degrees, because they are high up in the mountain rather than underground.
From the caves we were taken to an Ostrich farm, where after a talk we got to feed Betty, look at the young chicks, and then if you wish you could sit on and/or ride an ostrich. I declined, but a couple of the girls had a go. From here Annuka and her dad left as they were catching the shuttle back to George and then onto Tsitsikamma (where we would meet again).
I had opted for another night in Oudtshoorn, so i was dropped off at the Wildlife Ranch – they are involved in conservation work. Here another tour seeing various animals including:
Meerkats, Nile Crocodiles (small ones), Snakes (some local inhabitants), Fruit bats, a pigmy antelope, Vultures (endangered only 15 pairs left in the world), ring tailed limas, flamingo’s, Crocodiles (the large variety), pigmy hippos, guinea fowl, tortoise, baby cheetahs, baby lions/tigers, cheetahs, tigers, lions, white lions, white Bengal tiger.
There is a chance to have close encounters with some of the cats (for a small fee), so i took the opportunity to have a play with the 2 baby cheetahs born on 4th Feb. They were so cute, and i have many photos to prove it, as well as the complimentary one from the ranch. After a very late lunch, i strolled back to the Backpackers. Again i enjoyed the bbq (why cook when someone else is doing it!) the same as the night before. Lucy arrived on the shuttle, so an opportunity to catch up. Later we observe the earth hour, by turning off all the lights, so i sat by the braai and enjoyed the flames, and an opportunity to reflect.
No need to get up early as i was catching the shuttle at lunch time, so a leisurely breakfast, a stroll down into town (where all the shops were shut, except the supermarket, as it was Sunday), and back to sit and enjoy the sunshine in the garden.
The shuttle took us (Lucy had been to the caves and ostrich farm) back through Outeniqua pass, where we stopped to take a couple of pictures, and down to George. The Baz bus was going to be about 1 ½ hours behind schedule (the driver had not turned up for work, so it had taken a while to get a replacement driver), so Lucy and i had a 2 hour wait in George (stop was at McD’s!), and as there was no-one on the bus for Oudtshoorn, the shuttle left. Following a quick bit to eat, we went off for a walk around the town (as previously mentioned all the shops were shut except the supermarket) which was dead and we eventually found a bar that was open for a quick drink, before back to pick up our bags from McD and wait for the shuttle! We looked like hobo’s with our bags, sat on the curb with our ice creams.
The bus eventually arrived, and it was off again, stopping at Wilderness (amazing waves crashing into the beach), Knysna (silent k – Lucy got off here, but would see again at Tsitsikamma), Plettenburg Bay, Nature’s Valley and eventually to Storms River (Tsitsikamma national park), getting there in the dark.
Tsitsikamma Backpackers, is quiet, which i was happy about, not full of the youngsters on their gap years chasing 1 high after another and getting slowly drunk!
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