Jo'Blog: The Drive East (Oudtshoorn - Port Elizabeth

We left Stellenbosch early to get to Oudtshoorn in good time. We wanted to go to the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm that day (Oudtshoorn is known for their ostriches). We took the route 62 for part of the drive (a well known scenic route). It was really beautiful. All the drives had amazing views. It really is an amazing country.

The Cango Caves were very cool. There were huge chambers and awesome formations inside. You could choose to go on the "adventure tour" instead of the standard tour where you squeeze through tiny spaces to get to three more chambers but we decided we were a little too claustrophobic and slightly worried we wouldn't fit. After the caves we went to the ostrich farm for a tour. It wasn't really a great tour but we did get to feed the ostriches and stand on ostrich eggs. There was an opportunity to ride an ostrich but we were too scared.

The next day we drove down the road to a little town called De Rust because one of our dad's friends grew up there. Unfortunately it was pouring but we took some pictures and then started our drive to Port Elizabeth. It was still pouring when we arrived in Port Elizabeth so we didn't really do anything that night. The next day we left early for our game drive in Addo Elephant National Park. We went on a two hour morning drive and saw eland, red hartebeest, kudu, black backed jackal, and an elephant. We also saw some lions in a cage as they were integrating a new lion into the park. Since we didn't see too much on the drive, we decided to drive through the park to get to the other exit instead of going around (which would have been a lot faster). We did get to see some zebra, ostriches, and a few more elephants, but those were the only exciting animals.

That night we made it to East London and had a delicious dinner at Sprouts. The next day we took it easy and had a leisurely breakfast and walk on the beach. It was beautiful. After that we tried to drive to Durban, which according to Google Maps was a 7.5 hour drive. Unfortunately, all long drives in South Africa seem to take like 3 hours longer than Google Maps tells you. So we didn't make it to Durban. We called our hostel there and the man told us to stop in Kokstad because the drive after Kokstad is very deserted at night. So after a long drive, we stopped there for the night.