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Grahamstown06/14/2008
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Ostrich Just Kissed Tim - It Was Very Fast!
Male Ostrich Doing Courting Thing
Male Ostrich Doing Courting Thing
| Left Oasis Shanti about 9:30 and headed to Cango Ostrich Farm(coupon for 10% off!). We stopped at the Flying Ostrich on Main St. to get biltong(jerky) then off to the farm 14 km out of town. This is the tourist stop, only 500 hectare and just 300-500 birds - the main farm is further out w/ 20,000 birds and hectare!!! Great stuff/info: 1 egg(1.5-2 kg.) = 24 chicken sized. A pair mates for life(ave 50 years in captivity - more stressful...in wild live to 80 yrs & up to 3 meters tall!). Mature in 30 months, female can lay up to 150 eggs/yr. - 12 in a nest - if you fool them by removing all but 1, she then lays more thus the increase in #s. They are really dumb birds but tough, they can run 80 km/hr for up to 5 kms., they can kill a person with their foot/claw. Their meat is the healthiest, no fat or cholesterol, all is exported @ 140 R/kg vs beef @ 40 R/kg! Bon had a great ride on one as well as feeding(see pics). A super experience not avail anywhere else. After lvg ostrich farms and town about noon(everything was closed by the time we pulled out...these folks like their weekends) we headed N on R2 into cattle and sheep & dairy country, mtns, rocky coast, sand beaches, many high end houses...funny looking ones but I guess it's their type of building. Bon had her hands full driving all day to Grahamstown, old pioneer place which became the center of conflict between native Khoe-Sans people and Afrikaans all the way thru apartheid! We ckd into Old Goal Backpackers(old jail) - and that's exactly what it is - our dorm room was a converted cell! Very helpful reception fellow too. Located across from Rhodes Univ., where we attempted to get into a computer room there but unable to get into internet. |
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