A Tour of Africa: Days 24-31-Last stop: George

Our last leg of our African journey is a town called George, where Ron and Anya are from. We spent our last week with Ron’s family, taking in the local sights and winding down after a whirlwind tour.

Some places we explored outside of George were places called Knysna and Cango. Knysna was a gorgeous town off the coast, that had a beautiful waterfront and an amazing little trail that took you to the pinnacle of a marina entrance. This area, on a high tide day, is impossible to pass through. The waves were crashing all around (and this was during LOW tide!) while small sailboats were bravely steering their way out into the wild. It was just another visual of our irrepressible Mother Nature.

Next, we went to the waterfront to enjoy a delicious lunch of fresh oysters, sushi and salad. With a little wine and beer, of course. :)

Stalagmite in the Cango Cave, roughly 1.5 million years old

On our last day in South Africa, Ron and Anya took us to a town called Oudtshoorn, where the Cango Caves are housed. These caves are approximately 3 miles in length, and are estimated to be over 80,000 years old (although some of the stalagmites and tites are estimated to be around 1.5 million years old!). We elected to do the “adventure” tour, which meant climbing through passages aptly named “Lover’s Lane” (because you get so up close and personal to the walls that are squeezing you through), and “Devil’s Chimney” and “Letterbox” (this one because the only way out of the tunnel is to drop through a slit not much wider than yourself…head first!)

Overview of one of the rooms in the Cango Caves

This was a really fun “last adventure of Africa”. Especially going through the “Devil’s Chimney.” We had to stick our right leg in first, then our left shoulder, and THEN our head, just to be able to fit into the tight squeeze. THEN, we had to lift our right leg approximately 1 foot high onto a “step” to propel ourselves up into the “chimney”. THEN, we had to find the foot hold for our left foot, and again lift our right foot onto another foothold at least a foot higher than the last. The problem? The entire width of the area was just big enough to barely fit, let alone trying to figure out a way to lift your leg perpendicular to your body and then push yourself up. Thankfully, Ron went before us, and was able to help pull Anya up a bit to get the right footing, and Matt went behind me and was able to push my bottom up a little to get the same effect.

Once we thankfully made it through the Devil’s Chimney and saw the daylight skies again, we ventured to our final touristy spot: petting cheetahs.

I’m not normally an advocate of caged animals being exploited so people can say they got to pet a wild animal, but Ron and Anya told us that this was a wildlife preserve to protect animals in the endangered species category. And since this happens to be a very popular destination for both tourists and locals alike, we decided to financially support the preserve and pet a cheetah or two.

Actually, it was just me who went into the cage. Matt looked from the safety of the railing above, while Anya went to cuddle with some lemurs and Ron took photos. The preserve was more or less a zoo; with some of the animals being primed to be re-released into the wild (more like into nature preserves in the wild, but still fenced off to keep poachers away), most of the animals were not approachable. But we were able to learn a little more about a few creatures of the wild: vultures, crocodiles, hippos, white lions, Bengal tigers and such. All in all, it was a good experience, and a great last day in the “wild.”

Our last night was spent with Anya’s parents, who cooked us a delicious meal of roast lamb, potatoes, veggies and chocolate cake. These two know my weaknesses!!

While we were sad to see the end come so quickly, both Matt and I were excited to get back to the states and begin our next chapter. But that’s reserved for a separate blog. :)