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When I left off last, we were waiting for our dinner in Hermanus and boy was it worth the wait. There was way too much food but really lovely dinner - chicken, salad, garlic bread & potatoes all for about $10. We sat outside around the fire and chatted with a few of the others staying there. Everyone was of the same opinion about South Africa - no one has given themselves enough time to see everything they want to see.
Anyway, Sunday morning we got up early to head down to our whale watching spot for about 1.5hrs. In that time we had about 15 or so whales hanging around. It really is magic. I didn't mention that the afternoon before when we were out here, the photographer was back and he ended up giving us an ex sample copy of his book for free. It's a bit tattered but was so generous of him. I also forgot to mention, that when in Cape Town I found out I hadn't smashed my lens (big sigh of relief). The UV filter I had put on it 5 years ago when I bought it (and had forgotten all about) was what smashed so I bought another one and put it on - that saved me a lot of money and hassle with the insurance company that is for sure.
Anyway, we eventually pulled ourselves away from the whales to go back and get breakfast and pack the car. We had to get away because we had an appointment with meerkats. We pretty much floored it to the town of Oudtshoorn which was about 5hrs away. Luckily the speed limit for most of the way was 120km p/h. I wasn't sure if we would make it but we did. This town is more inland and the scenery changed on the way. There have been some beautiful wild flowers and bushes as we have driven along and we also drove over another beautiful pass - they have really good roads here and very well signposted.
We made it to Meerkat Magic at 2.57pm. Here we met Grant, a world expert on meerkats who has done documentaries with Discovery, BBC & National Geographic. He used to do tours at sunrise but has since changed to the afternoon so visitors can see what goes into actually finding them of an afternoon (which is what he used to have to do for his sunrise tours). These are wild meerkats that live on this land. There are only a few places left where they live naturally.
We jumped into Grant's BMW (not your usual safari car) but it is what the meerkats associate with him and know not to fear it. They have apparently scent marked it as they have his shoes which he wears (he has different pairs for different groups of meerkats). Well, 4 hours later we were filled with information about the animals and the land in which they lived. He was a fountain of knowledge and it is all about conservation. Unfortunately, we had used up all our luck with the whales because the meerkats obviously forgot about our appointment and didn't show!! We did get to see their burrow system which is huge and the holes they dig but that was it. Grant did give us some written information along with a disc with photos and a DVD with 3 of the documentaries but we haven't had a chance to watch them yet. So although we didn't see the Meerkats, it was an afternoon well spent, although tiring as it was very hot out.
We headed into the town to find Backpackers Paradise and glad to have our own bed with en-suite. Good backpackers, just a shame we couldn't stay longer. We were chatting to some people while we ate dinner and after comparing travel stories with a girl from England she said she was glad to have met me, another wandering soul who hasn't settled down because she was worried there was something wrong with her!!
This morning we headed out to Safari Ostrich Farm. Oudtshoorn (pronounce it Oats Horn) was the Ostrich capital of the world once, especially in the late 1800's when it was all the fashion to wear the feathers. Apparently 1kg of feathers was equal in worth to 1kg of gold. Now, you are probably thinking how interesting can an ostrich farm be. Well, it was actually pretty interesting with some of the facts we found out. For instance, we stood on 6 ostrich eggs and they didn't break (weight limit is 120kgs). They weigh about 1.5kgs, are equal to 24 chicken eggs, the first egg an ostrich lays is always smaller and she breaks it and eats it to give her the calcium for the rest of the eggs, she lays one a day and on a farm, they take away so many eggs, but always leave 4 or 5 and since the ostrich can't count, she just keeps laying them.
If you weighed under 80kgs you could sit on an ostrich and if you weighed under 75kgs you could ride one. We watched some others do it and had a quite a laugh. The tour was finished off with two jockeys racing each other. It was all in a bit of fun. Mum did buy an authentic feather duster to bring home. Also, if you are ever going to buy an ostrich leather product you can tell if it is authentic by trying to lift one of the 'nobs'. If it lifts, it is authentic!!
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