Klein Karoo at night

This drive totally caught me off guard – I really hadn’t known that the area would be so mountainous. The roads wound around and gave spectacular views and showed me what the phrase “hairpin turn” means. I was so glad that I wasn’t the one driving! And a little glad that it was dark when we were driving through the last part (we couldn’t see how steep things were, and possibly travelled more relaxed because of it). For some reason, I had expected this part of the country to be relatively flat and grassy).

We arrived in Sedgefield, which is a small town between George and Knysna. The next day, we headed back toward Oudtshoorn (sounds like ‘Oats Horn’) – this was the way we had come in the dark, and now we were really able to appreciate what we had driven through (or, what my dad had navigated us through!).

Our destination: the Cango Caves. My mom had been here when she was about 7 years old, and my grandmother still speaks of it as something you have to see when you’re in South Africa. The Cango Caves are Africa’s largest show caves and “one of the Seven Wonders of Southern Africa” (according to the brochure). Cullen and I decided to do the Adventure Tour, which was for “lean people only” (and they meant it – at one point, the opening that you are crawling/slithering through is only 27 cm wide)! I didn’t think I was claustrophobic (apparently, this is the way to find out) but I could feel myself panicking a bit. Well, Cullen was actually wondering what was happening to me because he could hear me wheezing a little (climbing through the narrow chimneys requires a “degree of fitness”). Anyway, with the help of Cullen and our guide I made it through safely. It was fun, but not a tour I would do on my own…