Robertson to Oudtshoorn

The view from the verdana at the La Plume Guesthouse in Oudtshoorn.
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Today we mostly drove on the R62 in an area known as "The Little Karoo".  We only had time for one stop, in the lovely little town of Montagu.  They have a small visitor center with a very helpful staff, as well as the Montagu Dried Fruit, a center where we picked up yummy locally-grown treats for the road - we liked the guava roll, though their fruit leathers are less sweet than ones we eat at home.  After Montagu we continued on to Oudtshoorn, our stop for the night.  We stayed at La Plume, a nice guesthouse where we were greeted with guava juice and our own bottle of port wine in our room.  We did not spend much time relaxing as we had to drive to The Cango Caves (past Oudtshoorn) in time for the 4pm tour.  This one tour tour of the large and beautiful caves is definitely worth the extra drive.  The caves are very well set-up for tours, with strategic lighting of the most fantastic formations for picture taking and mostly smooth clay floors (not its natural state but the clay used for the floor was found in the caves at least).  Our guide also turned out all the lights so we could have an idea of what it felt like for the first people who discovered the caves.  I was amazed such a large, open space could exist underground!  They were very warm caves as well, with about 80% humidity.

Some of the crazy cave formations at the Cango Caves.
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After our cave tour we ate dinner in Oudtshoorn at Jemima's, the most sophisticated restaurant we have eaten at in Africa so far.  Jubie's ostrich steak was succulent (and I usually don't even like meat!) and my vegetable pie (butternut squash, red pepper, feta) was melt-in-your-mouth.  Mmm.  We even were able to eat fast enough to drive back to the guesthouse before dark.