Knysna to Outdshoorn

South Africans are carnivores and love nothing better than to cook up a ‘braai‘ (barbie to us) as you can see by the quantity of meat our tour leader Darryl is cooking up on the Weber.  We had more food than we could eat but it was delicious

And this was only half of what Darryl cooked up for us

Today we took to the gravel back roads enroute to Oudtshoorn.  The scenery is more rural now with beautiful farmlands surrounded by mountains.  We only rode around 200km which was a short day for us for a change.  

Hills and mountains surrounding us made for great curves and sweeps as we rode through the passes

Arriving around lunchtime we headed for the Canga Ostrich Farm to learn about these huge ‘feather dusters’.  I’ve never had much time for Ostriches, but must admit they’re characters and will do anything for food.  Geoff was first to cuddle up with a friendly female who wrapped herself around him trying to get the treats on offer from our guide.  There were families with Mum, Dad and several chicks, and the stock which they pluck the feathers from for a variety of uses.  They looked a bit like huge turkeys ready for basting, where their feathers had been plucked. They had other birds which were penned separately and we were invited to saddle up for an ostrich race - hmmm.  The best part was the neck massage which involved backing up to the fence with a bucket of treats while half a dozen ostriches tried to get to the food.  That was an interesting experience and I thought I would lose my sunglasses and earings.  Then to get even, we ate ostrich kebabs for lunch which were delicious.

Mum, Dad and the kids

I'm in there somewhere and about to lose my sunnies

We followed that experience with a visit to the Canga Caves with huge stalactites and stalagmites.  The caves were very well set up and quite warm at a temp of 20 degrees which they maintain all year round.

To wind up the day we rode on more gravel up through the mountains for a spectacular view over the valley below.  We were surrounded on all sides by beautiful mountains, and in the valley were farmlands, it was wonderful.  We headed back to our lodge which turned out to be the best accommodation we’ve had to date and it seems a pity that we have to saddle up again tomorrow and head for Cape Agulhas, the most Southerly point on the continent where the 2 oceans meet.  I expect we’ll see more great scenery.

Who's the Queen of the mountains?