To Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves

The camp and equipment of the honorary park rangers.

Common dolphin.

One of the poorer neighbourhoods we passed by.

The harbour of Knysna.

Typical of the drive.

The 'Lando' of GAdventures, which replaces the big overland vehicle that John and I traveled on.

Cango Caves.

Ostriches on a breeding farm.

Wednesday, December 13^th.

We left this morning at 7:00 and drove through some very beautiful countryside. I have been negligent in mentioning how beautiful the countryside is. We have driven through farming areas, mountainous areas, dry parched areas and through many managed forests that are grown for logging. We stopped for a break at a lovely little seaside town called Knysna. This is a retirement and tourist town. We stayed for an hour before heading off again. We stopped in the town of George because Valaria is leaving the tour early in order to go to Botswana. Then we stopped once more for a lunch and a grocery shop. We met the Gadventures purple bus there and I talked to the guide for a bit and asked about his trip, which turned out to be an upgraded tour with only six people. He told me that his parents both work with my friend GP in the Cape Town office, and told me to say hi to the when I visit him. Then we boarded the truck again for the drive to the Cango Caves. We drove through the Karoo region. This is an area of arid land that supports succulent, cactus type vegetation. The Cango Caves are the largest cave system in the Africa. We had a guided tour through about 600 metres of the cave system and saw some beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.

After that we drove through ostrich country, where people farm them for their feathers and to make leather, on our way to our campsite for the night. This was a normal campground with regular campers not the upscale ones we saw on the coast.