We spent last night in the Mooiplaas Guest House, and after scrambled ostrich egg for breakfast, we headed up a beautiful (although rather touristy) valley to the Cango Caves. Can’t say they topped my 35 year old memory of the Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains that I visited with mum and dad. The boys were impressed though, and I’m sure had images of dragons and the like living in there.
Onto the ostrich farm. This valley gets to over 40 degrees in the summer and suits the breeding of ostriches. They use the meat (delicious), the eggs (one is the same as 24 chicken eggs), the feathers, and the leather. I refrained from buying a gorgeous ostrich leather handbag for $1000. I don’t think there are any poor ostrich farmers.
Ferg and Harry both had a ride on an ostrich and, not surprisingly, was the highlight of their day.

Along the way in this region you can smell Camphor Trees from time to time. Never smelt that in nature before – apart from in the pharmacy!

Over the mountains at 840m elevation, and down to the coast at Mossel Bay. We thought this would be a quiet little town, but it’s actually over 50,000 population. A huge sprawling city, with the obligatory “township” adjacent. Some cultures refer to these townships as slums, but they are really just a different standard of housing (that was an understatement) with increasing organisation of electricity supply and maybe one day sewerage too.

We drove east to a small area called Glentana, and stayed in a guest house right on the beach and fell asleep listening to the Indian Ocean pound the shore line.

Harry having a ride on an ostrich.

Beach at Glentana – very similar to Johanna or Station Beach down in the Otways

Ferg, Harry and John started today with a 3km run to a really cool playground next to the funky stadium they built for the soccer world champs. It has climbing stuff, ropes activities and spinning thing…..all for 7-16 year olds. A run home and a big breakfast before hitting the road for Oudtshoorn – about 500km – east along the Garden Route. The landscape varied from rolling green hillsides as far as you can see, reminding us of mid north South Australia, to craggy treeless peaks just like the Pyrnees or even New Zealand. Then it became dry and scrubby, and we were convinced we could be in the Australian outback with red dirt that could have put us in the beautiful Red Centre.
We are staying on a guest farm just out of town, and have enjoyed a delicious dinner of medium rare ostrich. The boys loved it too!
John has Man Flu (read – just a cold) and is only just coping with being away from home for the Tour de France coverage. It’s hard to see it live when we’re out and about all day! Needless to say, it’s the first thing checked (before email) when we get Internet connections. Although it might just slip down the list when we get to Jeffries Bay and he wants to see what the surf is like.

Baboons are everywhere:

and can be dangerous. We saw them down near the Cape, and today on a spectacular mountain pass on the way to Barrymore. They just hang about by the road side. Far more intelligent than, say, our kangaroos though. The baboons move out the way of the cars!

Here’s a random photo of us all on Table Mountain. Nothing to do with today’s fun.

And so, to today……. There are some places you have to go (Pyramids of Egypt, Eiffel Tower, Grand Canyon – stuff like that) and the Cape of Good Hope is one. The most south westerly point in the continent of Africa (most southern point is Point Agula – about 200km east from here) is somewhere that travellers like to go. It has a great name, it has history, and it is spectacular.
We left Cape Town this morning and travelled by car with a local guide along the eastern side of the Cape. The whole region has many historic buildings due to its Dutch and English colonisation, not to mention the Portuguese influence. We saw some beautiful old buildings from centuries ago, especially at Simon’s Town. Here we visited a penguin colony where there is now a population of over 3000 birds, which was nurtured from just one pair some years ago.

The landscape is wind blown and treeless, reminiscent of Scotland. The vegetation of local wildflowers and shrubs was lush with winter rains, and whilst we didn’t see any zebras, there were quite a few antelopes (can’t remember their correct name) and ostriches wanderings around.
So we made it to the fabled Cape of Good Hope –

Unreal! It was really windy there, making for a bad hair day. We walked up to the point (didn’t get blown off) and then across to Cape Point where the light houses are. The first one they built was too high and got lost in the fog too often, so they built one down lower at 87m above the sea.

This is looking back to the Cape of Good Hope from the lighthouse. We drove back along the Atlantic coast of the Cape to have a late lunch in Hout Bay. The road here cuts into the cliff side and puts the Great Ocean Road to shame. Can you believe I said that? It was spectacular.
Leaving Cape Town tomorrow, and driving east for a few days.
Gee, and I thought I’d write a short paragraph at the end of each day!

If you ever get the chance, you absolutely must try this. Being this close to the top dog of predators is humbling.
We headed off from Cape Town this morning and travelled east for about 2 hours to Gansbaai. After a briefing from the skipper, and signing the waiver (not their fault if we die) we motored about 10km offshore to the famed Shark Alley which lies alongside Dyer Island where a small marine research facility is located. Shark Alley is to Great White Sharks what the MCG is to football fans.

Here’s John, Ferg and Harry in the cage. When the crew yells “down”, they go under the water and get a close look at any dental problems the sharks may have. After surfacing, there is always a yell of “that was awesome”.

Fergus reckons he’s going to tell everyone in his grade they should do this! There was definitely some intrepidation beforehand, but now – nothing but smiles.

Unfortunately our shark adventure was postponed due to bad weather. We woke up to a perfect day in Cape Town and can only assume the swell was much worse where the sharks live. So we moved on to Plan B and tucked into a yummy breakfast by the waterfront and then headed over to the ferry for a visit to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and many others were imprisoned. Turns out that’s a rather popular outing and all ferry trips to the island are booked out for the next 10 days.

Plan C is to take a boat trip out of the harbour and see some of the local marine life – not to mention fantastic views of Table Mountain and the funky soccer stadium they built for the World Cup. The swell was rather lumpy and the catamaran was rocking and rolling while we scanned the sea for Cape dolphins, African fur seals and Jackass penguins. I wouldn’t say the sightings were abundant, but it was worthwhile. And we got off the boat just in time to avoid surrendering to sea sickness. Phew.

CapeTown is truly one of the most spectacular cities in the world. Table Mountain lives up to its reputation of being awe inspiring in the extreme. Topped by cloud for much of the day, it eventually cleared so we could see how it majestically sits above the city.

Whilst waiting for said cloud to clear, we went to the Two Oceans Aquarium. This is a world class aquarium and we spent ages in there looking at the many displays. Fergus and Harry loved the touch pool, the great white sharks, and just about everything there! In fact, Harry loved it all so much, he flattened the battery in his camera before the day was over! And the best part was that there were no crowds like we’ve seen at the Melbourne Aquarium.

Next we hopped on a bus and headed to the cable car that takes you to the top of Table Mountain – 1066m high. Wow! Goes without saying that this is one sensational view. As well as this, we were treated to a wind free visit. I think we were very lucky! What a way to finish the day, watching the sun go down as we descended in the cable car.

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