WOW!!! That word summed up yesterday for us. We went back up to Outshoorn to visit Cango Wildlife Ranch. Now we had been there on previous visits to SA and assumed that the girls would not want/need to go back but they did! If we’d have known before we went to Cango Caves we could have done both visits in one day but they only announced this after we had done the caves. Anyway... we planned to head back there yesterday. The weather has been so fickle here, totally unpredictable. Dense cloud makes you think you can’t do the beach so an ‘activity trip’ is planned for the day and then the sun comes out and the temps hit the high 30’s, or 42 degrees C as was the case yesterday!!! Anyway, the park had changed a little and we arrived and immediately were directed to a tour, obviously this is what you do as no one asked if we wanted to! The place is small, and with a tour under your belt you don’t need a map. Firstly was the Valley of the Ancients tour, and we were first taken into a giant greenhouse like structure, hot and damp, to look at fruit bats (I love these), turtles, some small buck (blue duiker) and gorgeous birds. Then it was vultures, crocs, pygmy hippos, etc etc. Next were the cats. Cango is part of a cheetah conservation project and has reared over 100 cubs. They had 8 cubs about 7 weeks old, sooo sweet and 3 Bengal tiger cubs that were a few months old – totally and utterly adorable. We looked at adult cheetahs, tigers and lions and then did the encounters. Into the lion’s den, well the cubs dens. First, the cheetahs, then the tigers. The experience was amazing; we were all so excited, awed and overwhelmed by a sense of privilege. How many other people have been able to sit with and stroke these animals? OK lots but have you??? The cheetahs, we freshly fed, remember it was 42 degrees C and totally out for the count. They barely stirred for us. One of the tiger cubs though was awake and playful. He was stalking single leaves blowing in the breeze and light patterns on the rock as it filtered through the tree above. I fell totally and utterly in love!
Another encounter you can experience at Cango is to get in a cage which is submerged in the croc pond! We saw a couple of Brazilian teenage girls do this. It was very amusing!
The South African kids have gone back to school now so the place is a lot quieter. I suspect that Cango Ranch was so quiet because no-one would be daft enough to go the The Klein Karoo desert on such a hot day. Mad dogs and Englishman and all that!
The previous day, Tuesday, Trish, Simon, Ashley and Sue came back from their Durban and Drakensberg trip. They had some great game drives seeing the big 5 within an hour on their last trip that morning, including a leopard with a cub.
On Sunday we went to Knysna. We started off at the Knysna Quays and had a very nice lunch at The Dry Dock restaurant. Gorgeous food and a great setting. We then had a drive around and viewed some of the dramatic scenery about the place. Much of the time Trish and Simon were away we took advantage of the privacy at the house to sunbathe and chill out. At Lynne and Vaughn’s there is never any privacy. Even if we stayed in when the Dukes went out there is the maid, the gardener etc around. Don’t get me wrong, I love being with them but here we have been able to get some decent sunbathing in. Eric, as usual, has sneered jealously at my brown skin as he curses his red, then peeling self. I, of course, am totally smug. I might not be blessed with good looks or a decent shaped body (OK it wouldn’t be too bad if I didn’t eat so much) but at least I can tan nicely. Please God do not make me pay in later years.