IT'S TIME FOR AFRICA!!!! Cape Town 2012: DAY TWELVE:

Adventure week is going way too fast!!! It’s already Thursday night :/ Today was another awesome day… shocking I know haha! We started the day going to the ostrich farm located in the ostrich capital of the world! This was quite the experience. Ostrich are weirddddd!! First, we had a tour and learned about all the reasons ostrich are poached: leather, feathers, meat, etc.). Then we got to interact with the ostrich. First we got to “hug” an ostrich, meaning we put our arms around one and they pull their necks around our necks, basically chocking us haha. Their necks are so flexible because they have so many vertebrate. It felt so weird!! Not gonna lie… I was scared haha. Is it strange that I was more terrified of the ostrich than the bungee?? Probably! Then we got to feed the ostrich and do what the guides call “get an ostrich massage.” This is when you put your back to the ostrich and are holding a bucket of food. All the ostrich will swarm you and stick their necks all around you trying to get their beaks in the bucket. In the process, they are quite forcibly rubbing your shoulders hence the massage! Next, we got to stand on ostrich eggs, which are literally HUGE! One egg can feed up to twenty-four people and can hold 150 kilograms without cracking. Mind-blowing! And for the grand finale, like five of us got to ride the ostrich (yes, that was not a typo; I meant ride!). Sadly since I got to hug one and get a massage I was not able to ride one but it was the funniest thing ever!! They go crazy, running sooo fast until the jockeys slip this eye cover over their heads and then they are instantly calm. According to the jockey, the ostrich thinks that if it can’t see you than we can’t see it. They are idiots!!! But really so hysterical to watch!! It was like bull riding but so much more comical haha! After we left the ostrich farm, we went to the Cango Caves, which was unreal. These caves are 150 meters below the ground, under the mountains, and are enormous!! I was expecting like a small cave with little intricate tunnels. And while this place did have its share of tiny tunnels, the majority of it was huge! I can’t really describe it but for some reason the first room we went into reminded me of my churched sanctuary. It was just so massive and breathtaking. The way that the rocks form is beautiful! There are flow rocks that create willow tree looking structures and columns that form from dripping rock hanging from the ceiling like icicles. Our guide even turned off all the lights in the cave except a single lantern light so we could experience what the man that discovered the caves for the first time saw. It was so scary; it was like being in that blind exhibit in Atlanta. Then, we ate lunch at the restaurant at the caves, where several people ordered ostrich burgers. Can you believe that?? After seeing the ostrich and even riding them, that you could eat one!! But, evidently they were really good! We then began our journey back to the hostel, which is called Afrovibe and I am obsessed with it! On the way back we stopped to look at this mountain range and the town of George nestled below it. George is the town where that Garden Route begins (the road/route we have been traveling on all week). The mountains were amazing!! Everyone just kept saying I wish what I see would translate in the pictures on my camera. But, they don’t! The pictures are just not good enough, so everyone needs to go on the Garden Route and see the beauty for themselves! Once we got back, we all went to the roof of our hostel to work on our journals for the week and watch the sunset until it was time for dinner. We had macaroni and cheese for dinner with this delicious spicy sauce on it. I asked Martin if this was a typical South African meal or just something the cook chose to feed us because he knew Americans liked it, and he assured me that he eats it quite often at home so that’s good! I’m trying to get cultured here haha. After dinner we had a huge bonfire and roasted marshmallows. We taught all the locals that came down to the fire how to make smores, and naturally, they fell in love! I got to talk to Martin some about South Africa and what he like about it and such, and he started telling me some of the phrases or words that are different here than in the states, such as: a robot is a traffic light, tomato sauce is ketchup, Coca Cola light is Diet Coke, a cue is a line like you stand in, biscuits are crackers, pudding is anything dessert like that is baked with flour, etc!