Most people driving the Garden Route tend to do a circuit including the coastal road and the inland roads to sample more of the Western Cape.

Since we were going one way rather than a loop we added in Calitzdorp to see more of the inland route.

Calitzdorp is in an area called the Little Karoo (land of thirst/desert).

On the way we stopped at Cango Caves which is a must see if you are in the area.

The caves were used by stone age peoples and are millions of years old. The first cave area is massive, the picture above shows the scale with people in it.

The main tour takes you through a part of the cave system, there is an ‘adventure’ tour that takes you deeper in although requires going through some smaller passageways.

The photo below looks like an adult bird feeding its young.

The caves run for 5km but only one quarter are open to the public.

The cave visit was great, the rock formations with stalactites and stalagmites are very impressive.

It’s the largest known cave system in Africa.

We took the dirt road onwards along the Swartberg Pass which is a great drive with stunning scenery.

Calitzdorp is near to a town called Oudtshoorn, which happens to be the centre of all things Ostrich related in the world!

We went to visit an Ostrich farm (there are a few here!) and took an Ostrich safari on a trailer attached to a tractor.

You can purchase pots of feed for the birds, however, you will need a steady and strong hand to deal with this lot of hungry peckers!

We had a few scared children behind us with the onslaught of long necks, big eyes and open beaks mobbing our trailer.

They have big eyeballs but apparently they are bigger than their brains.

We also saw some Emus, a more comfortable size bird!

Ostriches lay the largest eggs of any bird and can run up to 70km/h. Their eggs are strong enough to stand on, we did!

Jacqui spotted a local Meerkat tour but with a 5am start I opted for some beauty sleep! Photos courtesy of Jacqui below.

B

Calitzdorp is a very small town but we easily filled our time in the area. There is also the wonderful De Krans Wines vineyard nearby with an excellent bistro on site.

Next we head to Hermanus.