Oudtshoorn

We left the hotel at 8:30 for a short drive to the Kuersboom River for a scenic ferry ride. There were some lovely camping areas along the waterside as well as a number of natural beaches only accessible by water. It was very peaceful as we travelled a short distance up the river. There were some amazing reflections in the water. If you turn the photo sideways it is like inkblot prints. We saw a few cormorants, yellow wood trees & Oudtenikwa (or false) yellow woods.

We arrived back at the bus and drove a short distance to Kaaimans River Pass where we could see the railway line passing over the Estuary and the tunnel in the hillside that it passed through.

 

We continued on to Oudtshoorn where we had lunch and visited an Ostrich farm. We went into the incubation room before boarding a tractor for a tour around the farm. We saw many ostriches and also some emus. We got to stand on 3 ostrich eggs to show the amount of weight they can hold. It actually takes 120kg to break the shell of an ostrich egg. We saw some white ostriches as well as the usual black & white males & brown females. There was a weight limit for a person to sit on or ride an ostrich so most of us just had to have a cuddle. Saki was a lovely young emu and brought his head right across in front of me and gave me a huge hug. His neck feathers were so soft.



 

We stayed at a working farm for the night – de Oopstelt. The rooms were very quaint & old worldly. Dinner was cooked in the traditional way over a fire & the dining room was heated with an open wood fire. The atmosphere was very nice as it was a cold wet night.