Southern Cross
Today started early as we left CT at 6 am. We traveled for about 6 hours to Oustshorn (sp), the ostrich capital. This took us through the Huguenot wine region again and therefore through the mountains. I slept for a couple of hours or less before dawn so i missed the sunrise but the mts were beautiful again. I also heard the history of Afrikaans on the bus ride. It is a mixture of Dutch, English, African languages, and Indonesian. The way it was explained I wonder if it qualifies as a creole language.
Our first stop was Kango Caves. We did the one hour tour. It was nice. I was surprised how warm it was compared to say Mammoth or Merengo Caves. I was told it was because it is in the mt and not underground and so the heat of the outside rocks gets up to 51C in the summer and that works to trap in heat. Also, it only has one known interest to the cave so wind does not blow through it. It averages temps in the low 60s rather than 50s. I signed my name on the guest book in the museum and put that i was from Louisville, KY. I was tempted to put under the comments that "my cave is bigger than yours" but i didn't want to appear pompous;) The museum portion was small, but had some archaeology info and casts of a San couple (an odd story about that for another time). Here I bought a beautiful ostrich egg with a map of the world painted on it. (LP I also bought your bday gift--it's not LOTR but I think you'll like it;)
The afternoon was spent at an ostrich farm. It was a hoot. Our guide there was a part time comedian. I learned a great deal about ostriches and had my picture made sitting on one. Apparently ostriches mate like 10-15 times a day for like 6 mos. and on a farm will lay about 65 eggs during mating season and what I would think of as the drumstick part is actually their knee. We watched five students ride the ostriches. I must say that I have not laughed that hard in a long time. We saw one of the feather palaces built before WWI when these beautiful houses could be afforded when ostrich feathers were the fashion vogue. Then we had an amazing meal--ostrich steak and SA wine. Delicious! Ostrich meat is supposed to be pretty good for you but is a lot more like red meat than chicken. After dinner I think I found the southern cross in the sky which for a while was a great sky to see the stars in b/c there weren't many lights around (the clouds rolled through). I've always loved that CSN song.
Our first stop was Kango Caves. We did the one hour tour. It was nice. I was surprised how warm it was compared to say Mammoth or Merengo Caves. I was told it was because it is in the mt and not underground and so the heat of the outside rocks gets up to 51C in the summer and that works to trap in heat. Also, it only has one known interest to the cave so wind does not blow through it. It averages temps in the low 60s rather than 50s. I signed my name on the guest book in the museum and put that i was from Louisville, KY. I was tempted to put under the comments that "my cave is bigger than yours" but i didn't want to appear pompous;) The museum portion was small, but had some archaeology info and casts of a San couple (an odd story about that for another time). Here I bought a beautiful ostrich egg with a map of the world painted on it. (LP I also bought your bday gift--it's not LOTR but I think you'll like it;)
The afternoon was spent at an ostrich farm. It was a hoot. Our guide there was a part time comedian. I learned a great deal about ostriches and had my picture made sitting on one. Apparently ostriches mate like 10-15 times a day for like 6 mos. and on a farm will lay about 65 eggs during mating season and what I would think of as the drumstick part is actually their knee. We watched five students ride the ostriches. I must say that I have not laughed that hard in a long time. We saw one of the feather palaces built before WWI when these beautiful houses could be afforded when ostrich feathers were the fashion vogue. Then we had an amazing meal--ostrich steak and SA wine. Delicious! Ostrich meat is supposed to be pretty good for you but is a lot more like red meat than chicken. After dinner I think I found the southern cross in the sky which for a while was a great sky to see the stars in b/c there weren't many lights around (the clouds rolled through). I've always loved that CSN song.
posted by AnthroAnge | 2:25 PM
3 Comments:
Well, when you saw it... the Southern Cross, for the first time, did you understand, then, just why you went that way?
The information about the KY caves, was that just a colonel of knowledge for us?
:D
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