Cape Agulhas
We were up bright and early on the morning of Monday the first of August... and when I say bright and early I mean it! We were on the road by 7am, which is early when you are on vacation, headed for our first destination of the day: Cape Agulhas.Cape Agulhas is the southernmost tip of the continent of Africa and the exact spot where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. It's a fairly cool place to be able to say you have been too! It's also pretty much the only thing that is happening in Cape Agulhas... on our way in we saw quite a few houses, some guest houses, a petrol station, a police station and what may or may not have been a pub... that was pretty much it! A very quiet spot which is perhaps due to the massive storms that rage around the coast and can produce waves of up to 30 meters high. It is an area which is notorious for ship wrecks and due to the conditions is not necessarily the ideal place to settle!
It is, however, beautiful. The light house that stands high above the tide is a stunning landmark against the brutal looking cliffs that edge the water. The Cape Agulhas lighthouse was the third light house to be built in South Africa, completed in 1848, and it is the second oldest which is still in operation. More information on the Cape Agulhas lighthouse can be found here.
We arrived nice and early which meant that we were the only people there and we mucked around taking a few photo's before taking a moment to soak up where we were and find a way to mesh our location on a map with what we were actually seeing. Both of us were thinking the same thing though we didn't talk about it till we were back in the car. What would it have been like hundreds of years ago when the dutch first arrived to have sailed around that point? What must they have thought of the land and coastline they were seeing?
*****
Plettenberg Bay
We reached our accommodation in Plettenberg Bay in the early evening and after checking in, checking out our suite and bbq area, we jumped back in the car and drove into town to pick up a few things at the supermarket and grab dinner. We were originally planning on having a braai at the acommodation but we were both so tired that we opted for Spurs instead - a local restaurant chain specializing in burgers and steaks - and ate until we could barely move!
Up bright and early again the next morning we went to visit Monkeyland. We had hoped to be able to touch the monkeys (we heard stories....) but it was set up as a sanctuary to dehumanize the monkeys and make them wild again so we understood when they said we couldn't. We paid for our tour (guided tours only) and sat down to wait. When it became clear that our tour was going to include some (4) particularly obnoxious and loud children we returned to the front desk and politely asked if we could wait till the next tour. Thankfully they said it wasn't a problem so we ordered a cappuccino and waited for the next one...as it turned out we were the only people on the next tour so we had a guide to ourselves... perfect!
I was a little fascinated by the guide. He started out the tour by reeling off these huge portions of information in such a way that you knew he had memorised a script and given the same speech a dozen times a day for years. By the time we had gone a little way in, we started asking questions because that's who we are, he started to relax a lot.
He was a mine of information having worked at the place for 4 years and he was actually really funny. The tour was supposed to take an hour and an hour and a half later we were back at the front gate having seen and taken pictures of some of the cutest monkeys. Many of the monkey's there had originally been pet monkeys. People find them really helpful pets for the first 5 years but once they mature they become like all other monkeys marking their territory and so on. Apparently most people don't like the smell of monkey pee in their bedroom...It begs the question though, if you are going to get a monkey as a pet, why wouldn't you do some research about that sort of thing?
We wandered back to the car and decided to check out a place called Tenikwa, which was a wild cat sanctuary right around the corner from Monkeyland, we hadn't seen any brochures for it so we had no idea what it would be like but as it was only a 5 minute drive we figured it was worth a look. We were glad we had chosen it in the end as we were lucky enough to fill a spot on their daily walk with the baby cheetahs.
We began with a tour of the sanctuary, looking at the various big cats, from the African wild cat to the Rooi cat and the Leopard. The Leopard being the one cage you are not allowed to go inside. We hadn't yet finished the tour when we were collected by our guide and taken for a brief safety video. There are a number of rules when you walk with a cheetah. The first thing to remember is that the Cheetah is actually walking you and not the other way around. You are warned not to look into the eyes of the cheetah as that is a challenge and they will feel the need to dominate / fight you. You may not pull on the leash but rather if the
Cheetah starts to run you must run as well. You are not to crouch down in front of the cheetah as they will either view you as a new game or as lunch. After the guide was certain that we were clear on the rules we were escorted back to the baby Cheetah's cage and handed a leash.
We walked them through the forest for almost 2 hours, even though the brochure said the tour was only 1 hour, it was only a small group of us and we were all pretty good at doing what we were told! We took turns walking the Cheetah and taking loads of pictures and video footage of the experience. It was amazing.
We started out so nervous but by the end of the time we were feeling a lot more confident about handling these gorgeous cats. They were so cute and fluffy. The thing we were most surprised about was the way the traveled. They would run for a few seconds, or walk for a minute, and then flop on the ground for double the time. The guide said it was because it was an unusually hot winter and the heat really tired them out. When we finally said goodbye to the babies, Zeus and Gabriel, we stopped in quickly with the grown up Cheetah's.
My first thought was that I was really happy we had been walking with the babies.... they were so much less intimidating than these massive beasts in front of us! The Cheetah politely stretched out for us so that we could stroke her and snap a few quick pics with the guide assuring us that as long as we followed the rules she wouldn't attack. I was just concerned about the odds... 1 giant female Cheetah lying down, 1 even larger male Cheetah wandering around behind us. If those Cheetah's wanted us for lunch we were, quite literally, toast.
Finally we were escorted back to the main building where they provided us with an ice-cold drink and a plate of nibbley foods, which we were so grateful for after our two-three hour experience, especially since we had forgotten to eat lunch! More information on the Tenikwa Awareness Centre can be found here.
Then we were home for a braai and then a grateful flop into bed for a good nights sleep before another busy day!
*****
Oudtshoorn
We were up bright and early (again.) to head to Oudtshoorn which was a few hours away from where we were staying. There was a lot there we wanted to do and this was the only chance we were going to have to do it so we wanted to make the most of the day. We were going quite nicely until we hit a detour that took us onto a dirt road for around 100km. It was horrible. It seemed that most of the people flying past us were driving 4WD's - they managed to ford the river quite nicely too - and the stones flying up at us did eventually crack the windscreen.
By the time we got to Oudtshoorn the car was filthy. Positively caked in mud. We drove straight to our first point of interest, the Cango Caves, and the car guard took one look at the car and offered to wash it for us!
To go into the Cango Caves you also have to go on a guided tour. The Cango Caves are a series of limestone caves that were first discovered in 1780 by a local farmer named Jacobus Van Zyl, who I personally think must have been a complete lunatic to climb down into the belly of those caves with nothing but a candle light. Especially since the first chamber he went into was roughly the size of a football field - candle light just doesn't spread that far! For a time the Cango Caves were used to hold concerts, the incredible acoustics and the ability to seat around 2000 people made it the perfect location, but due to the damage done to the caves by visitors these concerts were stopped. More information on the Cango Caves can be found here.
For our trip we were lucky enough to be given an English speaking guide who was absolutely hilarious... called me "Miss Australia" for the entire trip. The Cango Caves are incredible so we spent half our time marveling at the sheer size and beauty of it all and the other half laughing at the antics of our guide!
The next stop was the Cango Ostrich Farm which was interesting. Again this was guided tour only and to be honest it was pretty expensive for what it was. First we were led through the incubation rooms and then out to meet face to face with some Ostrich where we learned that the brain of an Ostrich is roughly the same size as a teaspoon, in fact their eye is bigger than their brain, so they are huge AND stupid...not a good combination in my books! From that point everything really felt like a photo opportunity and it all happened pretty fast. We were allowed to sit on, or ride if you didn't weigh too much, an Ostrich - unfortunately Karel was just over the weight limit (apparently you have to be a lot on the skinny side) and I have a slight paranoia about giant birds so we opted to sit only rather than ride. Then they demonstrated how strong an Ostrich egg is by having us stand on a pile of them... I swear I heard a crack!
We took a break for lunch in the Oudtshoorn township where we enjoyed some delicious calamari and a feta and avocado pizza...yum....
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