17th June - Mossel Bay to Durban

This idea I will put down 100% to Wynand, ‘lets get up by 6am, go fishing on the beach and get some sunrise photos’. What on earth convinced Sarah – the spectacularly accomplished sleeper-inera – to go along on this folly is something one may never grasp.

At 7:15 when the sun was still not up and a line not in the sea (due to the inability to see) a decision was made to give up and go have some breakfast, where we discovered from the hotel employee setting up for early breakfast that the sun does not rise till about 7:30 in the Southern Cape. Lol, damn.

But in all seriousness, mornings will never actually kill me, no matter how much they feel like they will. And the early morning beach was nice.

The breakfast at this place was omg-extrodinar - best omelet ever.

From there we set of to go see us some Dassie (or Rock Hyrax). A small rodent like animal, that is actually a not too distant relative of the elephant. As excited as we both were for the big, exciting animals we will be seeing on safari, this is one of the animals Sarah in particular has been most excited to see.

We went to a point on the coast where Wynand was pretty sure we would see some. A great bonus for Sarah was that this point was also an extremely significant archaeological site. Home to the worlds oldest discovered shell middens (trash heaps) and thus the first evidence for sea food exploitation in the world, at 120,000years ago. Woooo. Big deal. It’s a gorgeous cave on the seaside with centuries of soot on the walls and roof.

But – I hear you asking – did we see any Dassie?

Did we ever? Yes we did! So many. The rocks right up to the water were absolutely swarming with them. At first they were quite hard to see because they look just like rocks. But as you look you can start to pick out one, then two, three, four, etc. the longer you look the more you see.

They were so damn cute! So so so cute. And then they start running, and the 
cuteness expands tenfold. They seem to have a very different morphology that makes them run in a very different way to say a mouse or other rodent. Each one is a fat little ball of a creature with its legs positioned very much under it, rather then on the sides of its body. The way they run, they fling their legs out in front of themselves and bound across the rocks with such grace and assurance of step. Their body shape does not seem suitable for gracefully bounding across the rocks, they are fat and round, with short legs and no tails. But their behavior completely bellies the assumptions you could draw from their shape.

In telling stories to Wynand about my propensity to touch wild animals (and as a result often be bitten by an astounding array of animals) and the necessity for rabies protection shots, there may have been a degree of doubt and skepticism. This was smashed when Sarah eventually encouraged a few to eat from her hand and even let her pat it. Winning!

From the dassie stop we set off towards an ostrich farm. It was easy to tell when we were getting close as we entered ostrich territory, passing tens of paddocks full of ostriches. We got to the farm and started with a tour of the farm, a short introductory video, a look at the food, eggs (which we got to stand on, real fresh eggs that are able to support the weight of a person without breaking). The farm works by taking the eggs that the females lay and placing them in an incubator. This means that the ostrich keeps on laying until she has a full batch and the farmers get more. One female can lay up to 60 eggs in a season. The farm incubates 2,000 eggs at a time.

The ostriches are farmed for both feathers and meat. The feather trade, traditionally and still supports Carnival in Rio.

They brought one in to let us look at and see the anatomy etc. Out guide (Mats, an awesome dude) explained the plucking process and the handling tricks. To be handled the birds are blindfolded. They wacked a hood on one on the bird in question, and it was hysterical watching its reaction to the sun being turned off. The ostrich’s brain is smaller then one of its eyes, not making it a very bright bird, though it does have quite remarkable eyesight. So the poor thing really looked confused and unable to explain the sudden darkness.

Now for the best part. Sarah got to ride one! She was admittedly a little apprehensive about the prospect because ostriches really don’t look as though they have been suitable to be ridden (as horses are).

However after 5 seconds on the back having been told the proper riding position, leaning back with legs wrapped under the wings in front of the legs, she was loving it! They chased it around the yard for a couple of laps, Sarah giggling hysterically on its back. The movement is bizarre, kind of wobbly all over but remarkably smooth and comfortable.

Brilliant! She thinks she should ride them all the time.

Then after this fantastic ride we went and thanked the ostrich by eating its buddy. We had an ostrich steak and K-bab. It was delicious, a weird meat somewhere between chicken and beef. Something I would eat a lot of if it were available at home.

Along the drive Raina saw a cat running across the road just ahead, then had to reconsider her assumption as the shape was not quite right for a cat. IT WAS A MONKEY! On the side of the road it joined its two buddies. Sarah, in the back, tried her best to whip out the camera as we passed, but failed to get the lens cap off in time. So there are some lovely photos of a lens cap here.

Including the monkey a few very exciting things happened in a very short span of time. Another hundred meters on there was a broken down car with its entire engine block sitting on the road behind it. Next there was what appeared to be an entire family standing on the roadside of a car on the road. Next there was a hitchhiker signaling, and Wynand pointed out the other guy hiding in the bushes (possibly waiting to hijack any who stopped to pick him up??? reenforces the 'don't pick up hitchhikers rule' :P)

We flew to Durben where Wynand and Sarah developed a fabulous system for transporting our luggage. :D