When Lady Gaga made a splash at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony last month, it wasn’t just her performance that caused heads to turn. Her black leather outfit, replete with pink ostrich plumes, was also a talking point. Those feathers were sourced for design house Chanel and were given to Dior to create the get-up for the superstar. But they started their journey in the charming Karoo town of Oudtshoorn, in the Western Cape.
Oudtshoorn is synonymous with ostriches, even if the feather industry is now a far cry from its boom days. Once the “ostrich capital of the world”, its allure faded as the motor car replaced the horse-drawn carriage; ostrich-feather hats were impractical in the faster-moving vehicles. Still, even today you’re never far from ostrich products in the town — feathers, bags, accessories and dusters. And ostrich safaris.
The town has retained an allure of its own; it feels as if it belongs to a bygone era, with its clean, wide roads and charm. Despite that, it’s not big with day-trippers, who tend to prefer the beaches, swish wine farms and creative enclaves nearby; most visitors are foreign. But there are times when the locals turn out in force, such as during the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees — a national arts festival that lasts for about two weeks — says Theo Kruger, general manager of De Zeekoe Guest Farm.
Oudtshoorn has the oodles of charm of an authentic Little Karoo town, and it’s the perfect springboard from which to explore the region. As Kruger tells the FM, the town is marketed as a halfway destination on the Garden Route, making it a great stop on a road trip — and not just because of its ostriches. It’s near to wine farms such as Karusa Vineyard, the neighbouring towns Calitzdorp and De Rust, some art galleries and Wagyu beef farmers. Then, of course, there are the two Unesco World Heritage sites (the Cango Caves and the Swartberg Mountains), as well as the Cango Wildlife Ranch. For nature enthusiasts there’s hiking and biking in the vicinity.
“There are so many things to do I can probably keep you busy here in Oudtshoorn for a week without showing you the same thing twice,” Kruger says.
First on the list must be the Cango Caves. In there you have the option of either the adventure travel tour or the 1½-hour heritage tour. The adventure tour, as a friend explained later, is for fit, slender and adventurous people who aren’t claustrophobic. “It is quite exhilarating, and it’s great to get out of our usual and controlled comfort zones. We leopard-crawled, climbed upwards, and at one stage slithered through ‘the postbox’.” Be warned, though: “Once you have committed yourself you can’t turn back.”
The heritage tour is more sedate, and our large group included some older visitors with walking sticks. It does require some close attention, however; there are occasional slippery steps. But it’s a majestic walk, taking you through the first six of the largest halls of caves. As a white-haired visitor said at the end of the walk: “Worth every penny.”
Going to town
From the caves it was a whistle-stop tour of the town. You can’t miss the formal, sophisticated Cape Karoo Ostrich Emporium, which looms large in Oudtshoorn. The company says it supplies more than 65% of the ostrich meat, leather, feathers and eggshell products in international markets.
But there are quirkier retail places too — like Smitswinkel Farm Village. It has the feel of an expansive 1950s diner, with a mix of offerings inside — farm stall, gift shop and restaurant — and an outside restaurant and kids’ play area. The aesthetic starts from the exterior, a red delivery truck and 1950s Cadillac setting the scene.
Then on to a brief stop at one of the town’s several Ostrich Palaces. These sandstone mansions, some of which have been converted to museums and guesthouses, are so named for their opulence and the wealth of those who made their fortunes during the ostrich feather boom. Legend has it that during the feather boom the mansions played host to the kind of parties written about in The Great Gatsby.
Oudtshoorn has the oodles of charm of an authentic Little Karoo town, and it’s the perfect springboard from which to explore the region
The Ostrich Palaces are among the well-preserved Victorian buildings in the town. The most sumptuous, built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, have high ceilings, spacious rooms and luxury finishes, with imported chandeliers and finely crafted woodwork. We were lucky enough to pop into the Welgeluk Feather Palace, where the owner graciously showed us around a mansion decorated in the style of the era.
Next up was a visit to Safari Ostrich Farm, which dates back to 1956 and is home to ostriches from Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe, and emus from Australia. Again, there are leatherware and feather products as well as ostrich eggs to inspect or buy in the shop.
The experience turns out to be more fun than I’d expected — there’s a short tour of the farm on a tractor, and you get up pretty close and personal with the ostriches, even having the chance to feed the peckers. If you sit on the tractor and hold pellets in a container behind your back, the ostriches go into something of a feeding frenzy and gobble up the pellets.
We had a surprisingly good lunch of ostrich fillet and, even more unexpectedly, a delicious feast of Indian food. It turns out the restaurant is catering for a growing number of visitors from India who visit the Garden Route, so the farm has developed a special menu for the clientele.
We spend two nights at the family-owned Wildehondekloof Private Game Reserve, which spans 4,000ha and has a boutique lodge offering and is about 50km from Oudtshoorn. It’s a lovely place to unwind and soak up the safari element, with animals such as nyala arriving at dusk to eat the grass just outside our rooms. There were also eland, kudu, hartebeest and giraffe.
The lodge is well kitted out, with sprawling lawns and spacious upmarket suites, and we spent hours chatting away and enjoying the hospitality and good food.
In the morning, we headed out on a fairly early game drive, but animals were few and far between as it was windy — though we did spot a few giraffe and wildebeest, among other animals.
All told, it was a trip worth taking — for the surrounds as much as the “ostrich capital” itself.
* The writer was a guest of Wildehondekloof Private Game Reserve, a member of Cape Country Routes
“Meerkat” and “safari” aren’t words that generally go together – but meerkat safaris are indeed a thing, and we went on the Five Shy Meerkat Adventure on De Zeekoe guesthouse estate in Oudtshoorn. As a friend says on seeing some photos: it’s weird but fun.
For the adventure, you have two options: you can sit quietly on chairs waiting for the meerkats to emerge, or walk through the terrain predawn (or a bit later) and set up chairs, hunkering down with blankets to watch the little creatures pop out and dart around.
It’s like dating, says Meerkat Adventures’ Devey Glinister: in the first year or so you hang onto everything they say; after that you just see their lips moving.
Along with his son JD, Glinister shares insights about meerkats’ behaviour and habits. Their preference is for high summer temperatures and low average rainfall, because they don’t want their burrows to get flooded. And they don’t drink water — most of the moisture they need comes from the bugs, creepy crawlies and the flowers they eat. If it’s a particularly hot summer, they’ll often only come out at night.
“Meerkats worry about everything, not just predators, they’re nervous little animals,” says JD.
— meerkat safaris
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