Best. Day. Ever.

Wow. What a day we've had.

Not the best start as neither of us slept well last night; no reason as the bed was comfy and we had lit the fire so it was lovely and warm.
It didn't really matter though as we had booked a local guide called Roeland to drive us round. I'd messaged him a couple of times this week to confirm the booking, but he didn't reply; we didn't pay a deposit either so I was a little worried he might not turn up.

I needn't have worried though as he arrived bang on time and said he was old fashioned in that his word was his bond.
He was absolutely lovely, slightly mad (in a good way) and we've really enjoyed his company today.

Our first stop was at the Cango Ostrich farm. Here we learned all about the birds and their breeding/farming industry. We had the opportunity to ride on one but both declined as we didn't think that should be a feature of the tour. They gave us a demonstration and the birds really didn't seem happy about it.
We met the friendliest ostrich on the farm, called Betsy who gave us a hug, then the 2 oldest birds called Adam and Eve (they're a couple) who were aged 40 & 30 respectfully. Most birds are slaughtered at 14 months old, but if allowed to live can live up to 45 years old.
We also got a 'neck massage' included for free (this is the middle left photo on the blip).

A little further down the road were the Cango Caves (top photo); another spectacular phenomenon and a really good tour guide.
They offered 2 different tours but we stuck to the basic one as the more adventurous one involved crawling and squeezing through some tiny spaces (the smallest being 27cms!!!!). This didn't appeal to my claustrophobia at all!

The next part of our trip was the reason we booked; driving the Swartberg Pass (bottom
Photo). This is a 27km stretch of gravel road that twists it's way along the Swartberg mountain range.
We possibly could have driven this route ourselves but it was much easier in Roeland's 4wd plus he stopped at various places to point out landmarks and flora and fauna.
We asked him about marijuana. Since we arrived in South Africa, every now and then we've noticed a really strong smell of weed; I was starting to worry we had some in the car and were inadvertently smuggling! He reassured us that it's a local plant that has a similar aroma!

He also told us about a thing called 'geo-caching'. We'd never heard of it but apparently, you download an app and use gps to locate 'treasure'. He led us to a clearing on the pass and under a rock was a little sandwich box with trinkets that other people had left, plus a notebook and pencil. We left a message in the box for whoever finds it next!
This is something we are definitely going to look into when we are home, especially since we are always out and about. Roeland said sometimes people set a challenge to send their cache around the world in a certain time frame (eg a year).
Whilst doing the treasure hunt, we came across a group of people, again, just on a random clearing, halfway up the pass. This was a local church group having a meeting!

Swartberg Pass was epic and more than made up for the disappointment of Chapman's Peak Pass. Some of the bends were so tight and the road really narrowed in places; the bottom photo of my blip really doesn't do it justice. Roeland told us that it was created to make a shorter route for the carts to get from Prince Albert to Oudtshoorn.

Every so often, Roeland would stop the car, and direct us down a path to walk and see something interesting or photo worthy; all the while driving slowly behind us or parking just ahead for us to catch him up.

Lunch was in Prince Albert, named after Queen Victoria's husband and was a quaint little town. We also visited De Rust which is where the ox carts & drivers used to stay for a rest.

The scenery throughout our day was amazing; from the gnarled mountains, the lush green fields and the dried river beds.
We saw lots of wildlife; ostriches (which the area is renowned for), springbok & other deer type animals (that I forget the names of!) baboons, mongoose, dassies and (saving the best til last) giraffes!!!

Last stop of the day was the Meiringspoort waterfall; the water here was icy cold (we declined a swim!) and crystal clear. This is the middle right photo of my collage.

Altogether we were out and about for the best part of 10 hours; Roeland possibly would have stayed out longer! He was so knowledgeable and passionate about the countryside, it was well worth paying for his expertise.

Tomorrow is Mr A's bungy jump (eeek) on the way to our next stop, Knysna.

We agreed today that this holiday is on a par with the first holiday we took together to the West Coast of America. Every day offers something new and exciting and we are soaking up as much as we can.