Day 6: Oudtshoorn

By Ben Meschke

Day six started with our departure from Cape Town as the trip turned inland towards the town of Oudtshoorn. The drive took us through the mountains and deserts of the Western Cape, showcasing the natural beauty of southwestern South Africa. Our first stop was at an ostrich farm, where we went face-to-face with the largest birds on the planet. Beyond being the largest birds on the planet, ostriches have a number of other features that make them remarkable: their eggs are strong enough for a human to walk on without the egg breaking. They loved to bite anything remotely close to the fence, whether that be food proffered in an outstretched hand or the hand itself.

After we left the ostrich farm, we set out for our final destination, the Bufflesdrift Game Lodge. The lodge offered a variety of different animal encounters, and after getting there, we went on a bush safari to view some animals out in the wild. On the safari we saw wildebeest, springbok, nyala, white rhino, hippos, zebras, grey mongoose, and giraffes. Rare in the desert, the day was cloudy and quite cool so we were able to see almost all of the species living on the preserve. That weather eventually drove us back inside as the rain picked up at the end of the safari, capping off a day of discovery and connecting with nature as we observed and interacted with both the flora and fauna that the region has to offer.