Well today is the day we have been so excited about. We are up nice & early to pitch our chairs at the burrows of the very cute inquisitive meerkats. We were given lovely hot chocolate & homemade biscuits to keep us going & then we picked up our chair & blanket & hiked down to the burrow. We had a great guide who told us lots of interesting facts about the meerkats. They had spent the last year observing them & bringing their chairs closer & closer & closer so the meerkats wouldn't get spooked. They don't feed them or interfere in any way, they just sit & observe them for research. The meerkats have a number of burrows so every evening they need to keep watch which one they are using that night so visitors are not disappointed.
We only had to wait for 20 minutes for the first meerkat to come out. He stood proud with his tummy to the sun to warm himself up. They will not come out of their burrows unless the sun is out & creating warmth. Then another and another and another until all six were out warming themselves up for the day. Once they had warmed up they had a little play and headed off to do some foraging for some bugs & beasties!! It was a fantastic experience, they were so cute and entertaining and our guide was very informative.
Hi Ho!!!!
It really was freezing!!!!!
Little bit of sunbathing & overseeing their land.
If you look really close you can find them. Their camouflage is fantastic & our phone camera doesn't do them justice!!!
Cango Caves
Cango caves are at the foothills of the Swartberg Range near Oudsthoorn. They are Africa's oldest tourist attraction. There was evidence of the indigenous people having taken shelter here thousands of years ago. Some of the limestone features are said to be 45,000 million years old. The extended tunnels go on for over 4km with many caves still being discovered to this day. Only one quarter is opened to the public and only with a guide.
There are two main tours available. The Heritage Tour which is a duration of 60 minutes is an easy walk with levelled surfaces but many steps. The Adventure Tour which is a 90 minute tour takes you up steep steps, small crevices and through many small spaces, the smallest being called 'The Postbox', a tight squeeze at 30cm tall. They had a lady a few years ago who was adimant she would fit but she got stuck and was lodged there for 12 hours. The unfortunate thing was all the other guests were on the other side of the gap which meant they were all stuck for 12 hours too!! They finally got her out by cutting her clothes and applying lots & lots of grease!!!!
The formations are amazing, I'm sure everyone who enters is in awe of these spectacles. They use subtle lighting to enhance the structures and the guide is very informative. They are in the process of implementing a new tour which will be based on proper caving where the only light is the one on your head, for the more experienced caver I think!
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