Just Nat: May 2011

Friday, 27 May 2011

Cango Caves

Situated in a limestone ridge parallel to the Swartberg Mountains, the Cango Caves are a series of dripstone caverns that open into vast halls of towering stalagmite formations…

Happy weekend, everyone!

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Calitzdorp, in the heart of the Klein Karoo, is situated almost halfway between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, along the scenic Route 62, and is surrounded by the Swartberg, Rooiberg and Gamkaberg Mountains.

Calitzdorp has some fine examples of Victorian and Edwardian architecture.....

The town is dominated by the imposing Dutch Reformed Church, built in the New Byzantine style in 1912....

Beautiful in its stark simplicity though, is the neo-Gothic St Mark's Church (1880) that bears bells cast in London and is possibly the second smallest Anglican church in the world (the smallest being St Jade in Scotland)...

Calitzdorp is the Port Wine capital of South Africa, boasting five wine cellars...

A good base for exploring the main attractions of the Klein Karoo... the Cango Caves, ostrich farms at Oudtshoorn and the scenic mountain passes. More on those later....

Monday, 23 May 2011

Animal Antics

In case you missed them, there have been a couple of funny incidents in the British newspapers recently, both involving animals.

Staff at Wrexham General train station were shocked when a man turned up and demanded to buy a ticket – for his pony. He was refused and told that no horses were allowed on the train. Apparently, the man replied "I know the law!" and walked away. He then got into a lift with the horse and walked it across the bridge and onto a platform. When the train arrived, the man attempted to board it with his four-legged friend, but was stopped by a concerned conductor. The man is believed to have left the station – with the pony in tow – after a brief argument.

All aboard The Pony Express?

Police scrambled helicopters and ordered tranquilizers to hunt what they feared was an escaped wild animal, after several residents called in to say they'd seen a white tiger in a field near a golf course in Hedge End, close to the coastal city of Southampton. It soon became obvious, however, that the tiger was in fact a stuffed, life-sized toy.

Eye of The...er...Stuffed Tiger

Happy Monday everyone!

Sunday, 22 May 2011

On The Road Again...

Our South African trip took us from Cape Town to Oudtshoorn, onto Mountain Zebra Park and East London... and then all the way back again. This covered a distance of around 2500 km (1500 miles) and took its toll on our hire car...in fact, we had to trade in the first one when it blew a hole in the exhaust not far from Mountain Zebra. We drove into East London sounding like a tractor having a tantrum, and had to make a detour to the airport to collect a second (much better) car

South Africa has a fantastic road network, and once you're out of the cities, there is hardly any traffic (compared to the congested roads in the UK). Roads that seem to just go on forever and forever....

Friday, 20 May 2011

Parched

I never thought I'd say this..... but the south of England could really do with some rain! It's the driest and hottest Spring since well, since people starting thinking "Hey! Let's keep a record of rainfall so that we can irritate everyone with boring statistics".

The crusty ground beneath my feet

Anyway, I'm not actually complaining.... just a bit peeved that I missed most of the great weather by being the other side of the world and heading into their winter. Such is life.

I have loads more South Africa photos to share with you.... I just need to find a fat old chunk of time to dedicate to sorting them out in some semblence of a logical order. At the moment, time is a precious commodity for me... that annoying little thing called Work is really getting the way of my real life.

So, I'll leave you with a random pic from the trip... of a sign in a toilet in a farmstall/craft shop somewhere in the middle of the Klein Karoo, taken with my phone camera.