Day 11

Bufallo Bob, originally uploaded by simongman.

The start of the day welcomed a magnificent African sunrise with red skies reflected on the river in front of the Fairy Knowe Hotel. After an early breakfast we set off for the thirsty land of the Little Karoo, a semi desert scrubland of red soils and cacti north of the Garden Route. On route to via George we crossed the Outeniqua Montains on our one and half hour journey to the world famous Kango caves. The morning was a little over cast and quite cold for a change. At Kango we explored some very large caverns and spectacular stalagtites, stalagmites and flowstone formations (Can you tell that Mr Harrison is contributing to this blog). One flowstone sheet that we were shown comprised of crystalised calcium deposits was spectacular in that when a light was shone from behind it revealed its secret of being translucent and when thumped made a sound like a drum. Many of these deposits were over 500 million years in the making.

Next stop was the Kango Wild Life Reserve where we saw a large variety of endangered species. The highlights of this visit, which went down well with the boys and staff was the Cheetah stroking and the Crocodile Cage dunk. The ultimate here being Mr Whalley and Mr Harrison not venturing into the unknown waters, but, the squeezing into rubber wet suits, they looked devine.

This unique Indiana Jones experience ended up at Highgate Ostrich Farm where Ben our guide started with showing us how strong ostrich eggs were by allowing the boys to stand on a mating pair's clutch. From there we were shown the finer art of riding ostriches which many boys jumped at the opportunity of riding these huge feathered beasts. Once again it was Mr Harrison (Buffalo Bob) who was quick to ride an ostrich and stole the show with his expert balance and poise as his fowl careered around the corral to the howls and whistling of the watching punters. Finally the other guides put on a show as they raced their ostriches.

This blog was written on the journey back to the hotel prior to a final selection session of rugby training expertly delivered by Messrs. Trenhaile and Wu whilst Mr Duncan was sat in the back of the coach counting his dwindling wad of money (warning to the bursar), whilst Mr Whalley was confirming our next few day’s accommodation and fixtures.